


Seconded

by Signel_chan



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: F/M, Family Shenanigans, Multiple Concurrent Generations, questionable relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-01
Updated: 2016-09-15
Packaged: 2018-08-12 08:25:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7927720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Family isn't always something you can choose, not something that can typically be replaced or regretted. It's a thing from birth, and sometimes, that birth family is about the weirdest thing that anyone could ever find themselves living with. Factor in some distant relations and an entire different species and it can easily take "weird" to a new level.</p><p>A story of two very different second cousins and the world they've been given.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. o-ophelia

Sitting cross-legged on the floor of her little bedroom, the smell of fresh air and harvested grains wafting in through her opened window, Ophelia smiled as she flipped through the crisp new pages of the tome she’d received as a birthday gift the day before. With every page turned, words on how to cast spells darker than any ones she’d casted up to that point met her eyes, a soothing sight to her as she had grown bored with simple elemental magic over the past few months. As she tried to start wrapping her head around how she, just a small and simple mage girl, would soon be able to do basic curses, she could feel herself taking part in one of her nervous tics, licking one of her pointed front teeth as she read.

It was that position, tome on her lap, tongue moving all over her tooth, that she was discovered to be in when her mother pushed open the door nearly an hour later, most likely to see what was keeping her from joining the rest of the family. “Oh, hello there, Mother,” she softly said, not looking up from her reading but still knowing who had come in to see her. “If you don’t mind, I would like to spend some time in here alone getting familiar with this new tome, so that I can bestow a name upon its pages.”

“I figured that’s what you were in here doing, which is why I’m not asking you to come out. I know how your father gets when he gets a new sword, no surprise that you’ve ended up the same way.” Taking a seat right next to her daughter, Nah couldn’t help but have the corners of her mouth perk up as she looked at the girl beside her, noting that they looked more like young sisters than a mother and child. “Say, Ophelia, has it hit you yet that you’re another year older? Not that age really matters to either of us, but…”

“It won’t hit me until after I’ve given this gift the name it deserves. How can I dwell on silly things like getting older when my tome is still sitting here nameless?” She shifted how she was sitting so that the book’s binding was resting on the floor, her legs now kicked to the side, and she was propping her head up with one hand. Her other hand now switched between flipping pages and brushing her hair out of her face to behind her pointed ears, where it would sit for a moment before falling back into the way. “Ugh, and my hair is making this reading and understanding so much harder!”

Covering her mouth to stifle a laugh, Nah gave the two suggestions she could think of, first glancing at her own hair, the same purple in color as her daughter’s, before she said anything. “You could always braid it out of the way, it does work wonders if you let it,” she said, before her eyes moved back to her daughter, noting that the girl was lounging there in her nightclothes. “Or you could ready yourself for the day, that would mean putting something in your hair to keep it out of your face.”

“Neither of those ideas works right now, Mother, not when doing either would mean my poor gift would go longer without its rightful name!” Still not looking away from the words on the page, Ophelia tugged at her ear in thought, trying to come up with a name for the book so that she could move on with her day. But, like many other things in life, naming a weapon didn’t ever come easily, and she knew that if she tried to force a name on the tome, it wouldn’t fit—that was something she’d been taught by her father.

“You keep thinking that hard, you’re going to rip your ear off. What would everyone think of you then, a girl with one ear because she pulled the other one clean off! It would certainly make your friends consider you more unique than they already do, that’s for sure.” Still stifling her laughter, Nah reached over to stop Ophelia from what she was doing, but when her hand touched her daughter’s, she noticed that the girl had gone completely still. “Oh dear, did I strike a nerve with that one? Always knew I wasn’t one for joking.”

“I know I can’t help being unique, but maybe losing an ear would do wonders for making people like me more,” Ophelia mumbled, leaning forward to get a closer reading of her tome. “Instead of being just the ‘weird spacey dragon girl’ I could be something more! Do you think that would make me legendary amongst my friends, being with only one ear?” Based on how she didn’t get a response, it was clear to her that her mother didn’t find the question amusing at all, and she sighed when she realized no answer was coming. “Okay, but it would create many stories that would be forever passed down.”

“You existing’s already going to do that, don’t you worry.” Hoping that she wouldn’t be asked to clarify, Nah had to quickly jump to cutting off Ophelia when she did exactly what she hadn’t wanted her to do. “No, I’m not going to explain what I mean about that to you. That can absolutely be a story for your father to tell you the next time he’s home, because I guarantee he will get an hour into it before he gets anywhere, and you will be bored long before that point.”

Giving a drawn-out sigh, Ophelia finally looked up from her tome to see her mother still watching her, that half-smile on her lips. “You think I can actually get bored from listening to his stories? I’ve dreamed of the day when I learn how to tell stories just like his, but you think I’ll get bored hearing him tell a long one? Mother, you have no faith in me!”

“You’re right, I forgot that you’re just like him and enjoy a long, drawn-out, boring story to brighten your day. How did I end up with a daughter more like her father than myself, aside from the Manakete parts?” Nah paused, thinking about her own words, before shrugging. “Must be how my own mother felt when she met me, I suppose, on the ‘not being like her mother’ front, at any rate.”

“There’s always the future for me to become more like you, so don’t worry about me being so much like Father right now! I _am_ only freshly fourteen years old, there’s a lot of life left for me to grow into being someone new.” Ophelia sighed happily, flipping the back cover of her tome to close it tight. “However, there is no more time for me to come up with a name for my most precious birthday gift, and even after reading every page in it I don’t have the slightest clue on what to pick!”

“You could always choose to not name it and put it aside for something more befitting someone of your upbringing,” her mother told her, standing up as she spoke, “like maybe a dragonstone? The world could always use more Manaketes that know what they’re doing in battle, there’s already enough mages to go around.”

The girl, also jumping up but bringing her tome into her arms as she stood, shook her head at the idea. Taking one arm off the book to motion around her room, where shelves holding books of all sorts of colors, each one with a lovingly-created name affixed to its spine, surrounded the two. “I happen to think that magic is more of my calling than anything physical, although the freedom that comes with transforming into a mighty dragon is tempting at times. But I was given a tome for my birthday, not a dragonstone, and so I’ll keep with pursuing being a dark mage for the time being, if that’s okay.”

“It’s your own decision and I’ll let you make it however you want to.” Nodding solemnly at her own words, Nah hesitated a moment as she decided if she wanted to say anything else, choosing not to and instead gearing up to leave the room. “You come out and become part of the family whenever you decide you’re ready, I’m sure everyone will love to hear about how you spent the morning.”

“You can tell them I spent the morning naming my gift, if you want.” Hearing her mother sigh at the idea, Ophelia couldn’t help but grin at having caused so much distress just by wanting to do what she did with every weapon she’d ever been given. But once her mother was out of the room and definitely out of earshot, she flopped onto her bed, her tome clutched tightly to her chest. “Now how _do_ I name this most lovely gift? If only I had half the creativity Father has, I would have been done with this without opening its cover!”

She lay there for a few minutes, bringing the book to her face so that she could breathe in its new-page smell. “Hm, it smells like something that was fated to be gifted to me, like the cosmos had some say in me getting this tome. I do enjoy myself a nice starry evening, but I cannot name yet another thing after the stars, can I?” As she dwelled on that dilemma, a fleeting thought came to her, one that had her shooting straight up into a sitting position. “There’s no such thing as relying too much on one naming device! And what else would be fitting to couple with the cosmos than a relic of the conversation Mother and I had while I was reading the pages contained within this book!”

With that decision made, she got up and grabbed her item-naming tools, which consisted of tape and a pen to write on it with, and in her almost illegible writing she printed the words _Cosmic Sucker Punch_ on a piece of the tape, ripping it away from the rest with her pointed teeth and then sticking it on the book’s spine. “What a lovely name for the lovely gift I was given! If Father were here, he would be impressed!” Just like that, her excitement and confidence from naming the tome deflated, her shoulders slumping forward. “If only he were here. Why does he always choose to leave right when I need him most?”

There wasn’t going to be an answer given to that question, not then and not ever, something she had slowly started to accept over the years of waking up to her father being gone for various amounts of time. This time he promised it wouldn’t be more than a few days, which was odd for him and his travels, but she had high hopes that he was going to keep to his promise on that one. But if he wasn’t around to praise her naming skills, was there anyone in the little farmhouse that would? There was only one way to find out, and that involved joining the rest of the family for the first time all day.

Before she could do that, though, she had to get out of her nightclothes like her mother had previously suggested. The last thing she needed was to go out into the rest of the house looking like she’d just rolled out of bed, even though she hadn’t done much besides doing that. Picking an outfit from the ones approved by her mother (and therefore either too old-lady like in taste or appearance) was always a challenge, especially when Ophelia had so many cute things that had been given to her by relatives and somewhat-relatives, but she knew that if she dared go against her mother’s wishes on what she wore she would never hear the end of it. Most people weren’t too terrified of having to face their parents in an argument, but then again, most people didn’t have shapeshifting dragons as their mothers.

Once she’d finally stopped sulking over the outfit she put together and how plain it was, she moved on to actually doing something with her hair. She had a decorative piece she normally wore in it to keep her bangs from falling into her face, and while putting it on earlier when she was reading would have been logical, she still hadn’t done just that. When it was in place, the fabric portion of it draping the back of her head and the small sliver of a dragonstone resting perfectly in the middle of her forehead, she felt she was finally ready to get out to see her family. Grabbing her tome and smiling at the name she’d given it, she left her room and was immediately faced with her mother’s beckoning hand, expecting to be given something right away.

“Come on, can’t keep the name of it away from me forever,” Nah said, waggling her fingers a bit until Ophelia sighed and handed the tome to her mother. “There we go, now what’s the damage…? ‘Cosmic Sucker Punch’? That’s certainly unique, don’t you think? Couldn’t you have gone with something more nor—“ Cutting herself off at the sight of Ophelia’s head falling forward in shame of the words of disapproval, she quickly changed the entire sentence she was trying to say. “—er, forget I said that. It’s a name just like one your father would give one of his weapons, and if he was here he would be so proud of you.”

“I try to be like him as often as I can.” Her smile still present, although the blow to her excitement that her mother had caused was evident in how much smaller it was, Ophelia’s head perked back up as she snatched her tome back. “He said he would only be gone for a few days this time, he will get to know the name I decided on soon enough.”

“That’s true.” Nodding at the statement, Nah glanced around the room for a quick second before uncharacteristically grabbing her daughter, pulling her in for a quick, surprising hug. “Just…don’t ever decide that a life of travel is what you want, especially if no one you love is interested in the same. All the time your father has spent out patrolling the world, he could have been spending with us, and I would hate for you to make that same choice.”

Ophelia attempted to wriggle free of her mother’s grasp, but she stayed put when she heard the deep sigh that was released right in her ear. “I understand, don’t worry, Mother! I love my father just as much as I should, and I do mean it when I say I try to be like him, but to travel like he does for no reason? It’s simply not in the stars for me!”

“Not until you’re much, much older, anyway.” When the hug broke apart not long after that was said, Nah flicked her daughter’s ear, earning a groan from the girl. “I’m only reminding you that you and I both have a lot of life ahead of us, who knows how much of that we’ll spend searching for the next place we belong.”

“You’ll spend a _lot_ of time doing that, don’t you worry!” The voice that gave its input wasn’t one that Ophelia had expected to hear right then, having not looked around to see who else was present, so the girl gasped when she heard it, nearly bolting from where her mother had approached her to meet with the other woman in the room. Just like the mother/daughter pair, this woman looked younger than her age, although her looks were infinitely more deceiving than either of theirs. “Oh, hey there Ophelia! What’s got you so excited to see me like that?”

“I didn’t know you were out here, Nana Nowi,” the girl explained, wrapping the other woman up in her arms for a moment, before realizing it wasn’t the best of ideas with a big tome in one of her hands. “I thought you were somewhere else for the day, or going somewhere else, or something! This is quite the surprise!”

Nowi laughed, dodging the book as it got swung around her face for a few seconds. “Where would I have gone? To Ylisstol? We’re going to all be there soon enough, don’t you think? Besides, I _live_ here, just like you do! It shouldn’t be so surprising to see me in my own house, you know!” She paused for a moment while Ophelia awkwardly laughed, to allow for the girl to make sense of how silly her surprise really was. “Did your stars and all that tell you I was going to be gone?”

“They might have, which made me worried it was really going to happen! First Father, then my dearest Nana? I could never ask for anything like that to happen to our family!” Where she was standing, Nah muttered something about that, about how that happening to their family wouldn’t be such a bad idea after all, but Ophelia ignored it. “I know that everything here is weird and not-normal, but we all love and care for one another and that’s all this small dragon here could ask for from her life!”

“Don’t say that, I’m sure there’s something else you’ll want in your life as much as you want me in it!” There wasn’t anything in particular that Nowi was referring to by her statement, but Ophelia wasn’t aware of that, and so she spent quite a bit of the day dwelling on what her sort of-grandmother had meant by saying that. That was okay, because it offered a nice break from the dull events of the day-to-day life there on the farm, and because everyone else present either had given up weapons for their farming tools, or relied only on their dragonstones for fighting, there was no way that she could have practiced with her new dark magic tome. It was lamentable, but she knew the chance would come eventually.

* * *

The days of that week passed a lot faster than typical weeks did, in Ophelia’s mind, because she knew there was something to be looking forward to in her life. She hadn’t really looked forward to her birthday, although it had ended up being a good day overall, but she was now eagerly waiting for the moment where her father came back into the house after not being gone for very long at all. Had she known the reason for his decision to make his next trip a short one, she might have held her excitement back a tad, but by the time she was aware of what was bringing him home so quickly it was far too late to no longer be excited.

It was the middle of the night when she was awoken by the sound of rowdy people outside her window, the sound of mounts making their animal noises drowning out any specific voices that she could have heard. Shooting up out of bed faster than she thought possible, Ophelia carefully lit her bedside lamp and snuck to her window and, standing up on her tiptoes, looked out to see if she could catch a glimpse of anyone on the other side. No one was looking in her direction, therefore not seeing the top of her purple head of hair poking out the window, but she was able to make out quite a few people standing outside, the most prominent of which was her loudly-talking father.

“It certainly was an excellent idea to invite me to spend time with you in your corner of existence,” she heard him say, his joy almost tangible even at the distance she was listening from. “However, I must ask, why did you choose to live so far out from the city? Don’t you ever have dreams of going and visiting with your parents, either of you?”

“There’s no reason for me to visit them, it gets confusing enough for the common folk that there’s two of each of us alive that I try to keep my appearances in Ylisstol to a bare minimum.” That was her father’s cousin Lucina speaking, and while Ophelia had been told the correct term of her relationship to her on several occasions, referring to her in that way was the one she found easiest. “However, with what’s coming up the day after tomorrow, I suppose my yearly visits home will be doubled this year.” She sighed, and the girl in the window tilted her head, confused about what that meant. Thankfully, Lucina proceeded to give a veiled explanation of it: “Of all the things to feel compelled to go ‘home’ for, I never would have expected a run-of-the-mill birthday would do it.”

“It’s not a run-of-the-mill birthday, it’s the other version of your sister’s birthday, and they’re having a parade in her honor.” Speaking now was her father’s _other_ cousin Kjelle, sounding agitated as she talked, but that agitation made sense as she continued. “My birthday? Even though it’s not about this me? I don’t know, and I don’t really at this point care. You had me riding horseback with your daughter to come all this way, we’re going to the parade and that’s the end of it.”

Even though she couldn’t see them, Ophelia was sure Lucina was nodding at her stern sister’s reply. “Of course, Kjelle. It would probably do us good to speak with our parents while we’re there, seeing as the last time I recall talking to either of them was last year at the holidays, and even then it was an awkward affair.”

“Ladies, can we move this conversation inside, before we wake the farm animals up? I’m sure Nah’s father would just love to know we’re the ones responsible for his animals not getting their sleep.” Ophelia internally screamed at the prospect of not just her father but her father and his cousins coming inside to talk, because if they were all inside she could spy on them without being in such an uncomfortable position. Being on tiptoes for more than a moment was mighty hard to do, and her tiny little feet were not handling doing it very well at all.

Before she had the chance to duck away to greet them in the main room as they entered, a pair of eyes creeped up in her line of sight, someone looking into her window just like she was looking out of it. The appearance of this new person nearly made her heart skip a few beats in fear, but when the person raised their hand and gave a friendly wave, she knew it was nothing to be concerned with. “Hey there, Ophelia! Long time no see! Sorry I couldn’t make it for your birthday, my mom said that I was going to be seeing you this week so there was no point in us coming this way twice. What a bore, am I right?”

“A bore, sure,” Ophelia whispered in response, not wanting to talk too loudly in case her father was able to hear her being awake. “Your mother is quite nice, she knows a lot and has a lot of stories to tell, so I’m not convinced calling her a bore is right. Why are you at my window, Soleil?”

The other girl, her face lighting up at the sound of her name, seemed excited to say exactly why she was there. “Well you see, my parents thought it would be fun to take us all on this trip out here to your family’s farm before we go to the parade in Ylisstol, which is great and all, I guess. And then we got here and they started talking and I came looking for your room. You, uh, know I’m staying in there with you tonight, right?” Everything Soleil said came out rushed, like she was talking against the clock, and it was a lot for Ophelia to take in.

It wasn’t helped when, before she could answer, her bedroom door came open, causing her to scream and stumble from where she was perched. Soleil, on the other side of the window, openly asked if she was okay, while the person responsible for the startling merely chuckled. “She certainly inherited that from my side of the family, that’s for sure,” her father said, covering his mouth to tone down the laughter. “You’ve got to be impressed with her though, Inigo, because she’s juggling being a mage and being a dragon and that’s cool, right?”

“You show me her every time I come around and she’s the same every time. I’m impressed that she’s lived this long, but that’s the only point I will ever give you on this matter, Owain.” The man he was talking to looked down at Ophelia in the dark, while she lay squirming on the floor as she tried to right herself, before he looked up and saw the silhouette in the window. “And it seems I should get the point on having a daughter just like myself, as Soleil is more like me than your daughter could ever be like you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” both Owain and Soleil asked, sounding equally offended as the words came through their mouths, and not realizing that they weren’t the only ones to say anything.

“It means that you have a habit of trying to spy on the lovely ladies, my darling,” Inigo clarified, also ignoring that his child hadn’t been the only one to question him. “Although I’m sure you weren’t here to spy on Ophelia, not this time. You were merely scouting out your bedroom for the next few nights, weren’t you?”

In the window, Soleil nodded, smiling as she did. “Sure thing! I figured the one with the open window had to be Ophelia’s, the glass on this thing is bound to be horrible for her to do her star-watching or whatever it is that she likes doing.”

“It’s tracking the cosmos to read what messages they have,” the muffled voice of Ophelia clarified, as she continued trying to get herself back up. If only her room wasn’t such a mess of tomes and charts, maybe she would have been able to get a good hand and foot placement to get up on her own. But with how things were, it wasn’t until one of her father’s cousins (she was pretty sure it was Lucina, judging by how displeased the voice that came with was to see Soleil in the window) came in with a mobile candle that someone bothered coming to help her up. Even then, the person who decided to help was her father, and just having to look at him after having been so excited to see him again only to make a giant fool of herself the first moment she got was making her face light up in embarrassment.

At least, in his own excitement of being back home, he wrapped her up in the biggest hug he could manage, lifting her off the floor and cradling her in his arms as if she was a much younger child. “You don’t have to worry about me leaving again for a while, and that’s a fact. It’s good to see you again, even if it hasn’t been a week since last time.”

The embarrassment bubbling up through tears, Ophelia tried to express her own happiness for being back with her father but all she could manage was a choking sob that sounded so distraught. “Er, maybe we should let him calm her down, not intruding on their family moment or whatever?” Shifting how he was standing in the doorway, audible as the doorframe creaked as he ceased leaning on it, Inigo must have waited to get visual agreements from everyone else—except one. “No, Soleil, out of the window and come inside like a _normal_ person.”

“No, no, I got this.” There was a split second of silence, followed quickly by both of Soleil’s parents calling for her to not do whatever she was doing; Ophelia pulled her face out of her father’s shoulder, where she was crying in her combined shame and happiness, to see the entirety of Soleil’s bottom half sliding in through the window, the rest of her quickly following. Once her feet were flat on as much floor as she could find, she gave a dramatic flourish with her hands. “See, got this. It’s not like I haven’t come in through windows before. Apparently some people’s parents aren’t down with a girl like me interacting with their children.”

“Or maybe it’s that you don’t ask for entrance into houses and are therefore not given it.” Punctuating his sentence with a sigh, Inigo shifted his stance once more. “But what can I say, you learned that from the best and that’s all I can ask for.”

“What happened to ‘not intruding on their family moment’, hm?” Turning where he stood, so that he wasn’t craning his neck to give the congregation there at the room’s entrance a displeased look, Owain motioned with his head for them to get out. “I’ll be out there soon to speak with you all some more, don’t worry. We’ve got a full day out here tomorrow, best plan to make use of it in whatever ways we can.”

Of the three people that had been standing there, two of them left, but the third lingered for a bit as she clearly waited for Soleil to come with. “Nope, not happening, Mom! My room while we’re here, I’m going to start making myself mighty comfortable in here,” the girl said, taking a few steps around where she could to look at the collection of pictures and pages Ophelia had decorated her walls with. “You go on ahead and go, I don’t think they’ll even mind I’m in here with them.”

“That’s not any way to act when you’ve been invited into a house, but your father is right. You learned that from him. Just do not interrupt them if they’re talking, no matter what your reason is.” Not feeling like fighting over the situation was worth it, especially not with Soleil already at least pretending to be interested in what she was looking at, Lucina sighed and gave one last look at her daughter before she went to join her sister and husband in waiting for Owain to come join them.

He knew that every moment he spent in that room consoling his child was going to be one more spent out there listening to his traveling party complain at him. “Ophelia, listen, there’s no reason for you to cry over anything that’s happened tonight,” he started, laying her down on her bed, where she rolled over and buried her face in her blankets. “No, don’t do that. You’ve got to sleep there, you don’t want sopping wet blankets to sleep with.”

“I got surprised by someone coming into my room, which wouldn’t have happened if I had been in bed like I was supposed to have been. If I had been a good kid like you deserve, none of this would have happened.” Her words were completely garbled due to her covering her face, but she was reaching for her newest tome as she spoke, knowing that had she been where she was supposed to have been, she would have been able to grab the book and cast a spell at anyone who startled her. “I’m just a disappointment of a child, aren’t I, Father?”

“You spend too much time around your mother if you think you’re even a bit of a disappointment. She’s always ragging on you for not wanting to be a dragon all the time, isn’t she?” The girl gave a sniffle and a small nod, something that made Owain choose to stroke her hair in comfort. “Well, you’re not a disappointment for that, trust me. You’re even better for being drawn to a weapon no one else in the house uses, and if you ever want to doubt yourself, just remember that you’re the best mage around here.”

Sniffling again, Ophelia rolled onto her side, allowing her father to continue running his fingers through her hair. “I know I am, but it all just…oh, never mind. I won’t doubt myself any longer.” That wasn’t the truth, she knew she would always doubt herself and what she did simply because she should, by all means, have been relying on the ability she’d inherited by birth, not one she’d been working to better. “You go on and be with everyone else, I will go back to sleep like I’m supposed to be.”

“I won’t leave you if you’re unhappy, that’s not what a good father does by any means.” She repeated her statement for him to leave, and he sighed, drawing his hand back from her hair. “I hear you, Ophelia. I love you, my sweet daughter. Don’t stay up too late talking to Soleil, we’re going to do some training tomorrow. You have to show me your skills with that new tome, you know.”

The idea of getting to do that reversed any of the hard feelings she’d been dwelling on, and she happily bid her father a good night, which he returned her wishes by kissing her on the forehead and taking his leave, closing her door behind him. “So, sounds like you’ve got yourself an interesting family life,” Soleil commented, sitting down on the bed next to Ophelia while the other girl sat herself back up. “Must be something that runs through our blood, don’t you think?” As she mentioned blood, she reached up and motioned towards one of her eyes, where a faint mark establishing her as part of the Ylissean royal family was visible, and Ophelia knew that if she pulled up one of her sleeves, sitting on her arm was the same exact mark.

“It must be, certainly! Why else would we all be such strange individuals bound together in the names of fate and family?” She wasn’t going to expose her own mark, but Ophelia did rub at her arm a bit. “Of course, my strangeness comes more from my mother’s side than my father’s, whilst yours seems to be from both sides…?”

“Something like that, I’d say.” Shrugging, Soleil leaned back, falling into a laying position there on the bed and stretching. “Now, how are we doing this ‘sharing a room’ thing? I’ve never been allowed to have a sleepover with anyone like this before.”

“I wasn’t even aware we were having a sleepover until you brought it up, so I haven’t thought about how we could make it work.” Looking around her room and how disorganized it was, Ophelia’s eyes ultimately landed on Soleil and how she looked so comfortable laying on the bed like she was. “I guess we can share my bed, if you’re fine with that.” Judging by how Soleil’s cheeks began lighting up at that suggestion, it wasn’t a good one, but there weren’t any others that Ophelia could come up with. “If you don’t want to share, I’ll work on cleaning my floor so I can sleep there.”

“Oh, no don’t do that!” Her voice was catching as she spoke, Soleil becoming surprisingly caught off-guard at what she’d just been told. “I said I’ve never had a sleepover before, right? It’s because I, uh, can’t be trusted around others? I guess? Gods I don’t know, everyone’s scared I’ll hit on their kid in their sleep or something, which I wouldn’t do!” By now, her face was turning redder by the second, something that Ophelia wasn’t quite understanding the reason for. She’d just suggested they share the bed, was that really that bad?

“You’re getting red in the face, do I need to get some water or something for you?” Ophelia offered, trying to make sense of what was happening.

In response, Soleil grabbed the closest pillow she could and covered her bright red face with it. “I don’t need anything, nope not at all! Sleeping in the bed together is fine, we’re family and that makes it completely fine!”

“Okay then, are you sleeping in what you’re wearing right now or did you bring some nightclothes with you?” Moving past her confusion, Ophelia attempted to get things to the point where they could go to sleep, but Soleil had other ideas, ones that involved not answering the question. After waiting a few minutes, she asked again, with the same amount of kindness in her voice, but tacking on the reminder of, “Nothing of mine will fit you, you’re much too big for my kiddie clothes.”

“I’ll just sleep exactly as I am right now, don’t worry.” Soleil put the pillow she’d taken back where she’d gotten it from, which happened to be right where Ophelia needed it to lay down for herself. “I’m not going out there and facing my parents after I came in through your window. Sorry about doing that, by the way.”

“It’s fine, I’ve heard plenty of your adventures about trying to get into places without permission, I should have expected it. Thank you for not doing it while I was still standing there, though. My life is perfectly odd enough without adding you knocking me over and out by climbing through my window onto me.” As Ophelia turned out her lamp and laid down, she could hear Soleil awkwardly laughing at the suggestion she’d made. “Did I misspeak? I’m sorry if I did, I don’t exactly interact with a lot of people my age regularly.”

The awkward laughter continued for a moment before Soleil collected herself well enough to talk. “No, don’t worry about it! I just got the mental image of coming in on someone like that and it cracked me up, no big deal. Would hate to have broken my delicate little cousin-figure by doing that.”

“I am not delicate,” Ophelia replied, giving a “hmph” as she rolled to be facing away from where Soleil was. “I just look young for my age, that’s all.”

“Looking young, delicate, same thing. You talk like you’re some soft-spoken weakling, but I can’t wait until someone challenges you and you rip their head off with your dragon mouth. Or with your dark magic. Can’t forget you use that too.” Soleil then readjusted how she was laying, yawning as she did. “Boy am I tired from the trip over here. Can you believe it was before sundown when we left? Took us hours to get here! I sure am ready to sleep.”

In her head, Ophelia was scolding whoever had said it was acceptable for Soleil to share her room for the night, her not being used to having someone so informal and talkative anywhere near her. But out loud, all she said was, “Then go ahead and sleep, Soleil. I’m about to doze off myself, as I was sleeping before you all arrived here tonight.”

She didn’t even get an answer, Soleil already having fallen asleep before she was prompted to say anything. That left Ophelia laying there with this other girl taking up half her bed, trying to reclaim the sleep she’d been having before she’d been woken up. Seeing her father and his cousins and everyone had been nice, but maybe she should have waited until morning’s light to see them, knowing now that she was going to have the hardest time falling back asleep. The problem only intensified when Soleil started rolling over, trying to find herself a new position while she was sleeping, and that meant arms and legs occasionally finding themselves sprawled out onto Ophelia as she lay there.

By the time she did manage to get some sleep, she’d tried every trick she knew of how to force herself to close her eyes and keep them closed, but the only thing that seemed to work was counting the light snores that she heard next to her. It wasn’t until she was getting to some impossibly high number that sleep overtook her, causing her to forget where she was in her count to tell Soleil in the morning. That was ultimately for the best, because when she woke up to find Soleil flipped around in the bed, her feet resting on the pillow beside Ophelia’s head, she wasn’t going to be able to address anything but the strange sleeping position once the other girl was awake.

That event didn’t happen until Ophelia was already up, working on reorganizing her room so that her unexpected guest wasn’t tripping over her collections of tomes. It started with a loud yawn that accompanied some stretching, followed by Soleil loudly asking what the younger girl was doing. “I don’t want you to get hurt in my mess of a room, so I’m cleaning it. I had enough space in here yesterday to do some reading but that was it, and now I’ll have enough room for the two of us to sit and talk tonight before we go to bed.”

“Sounds like a boring waste of time,” Soleil said, honesty in her voice. “Why don’t you do something fun, like go outside and destroy things with one of the weapons you have under your control. Don’t you, like, fly around the countryside and attack things as a dragon? If I was a dragon I would so do that.”

“Yes, well, Mother would kill me before I got the chance, although Nana might allow it under the condition that she came with.” Pausing for a second at the odd nature of that question, Ophelia shook her head and sighed. “Soleil, why do you care if I’m doing something boring or not? Not everyone has such a colorful life as you do.”

“Define ‘colorful’, because I’m pretty sure it’s not as great as you think it is.” Ophelia tried to explain what she meant: the strange interactions with other people, the reputation of being flirty that followed her everywhere, the fact that she broke into people’s homes through their windows on occasion. “Oh, all of that isn’t even fun. Have you ever tried talking to someone you’ve been interested in after you’ve been turned down by them for being a total fool when it comes to being in love? It’s not great, it’s actually pretty horrible.”

“I’ve never loved anyone who isn’t family so I cannot say I’ve experienced that feeling before. I’ll take your word for it that it’s not great, though.” Stacking a few of her tomes against the wall, Ophelia tilted her head back to see Soleil sitting on the bed, fiddling with her shirt a bit. “Is something wrong with what you’re wearing? Should you have gone and gotten your change of clothes last night after all?”

Dropping her hands from where she held them, Soleil shook her head, tossing her long blue hair over her shoulders as she did. “No way, Ophelia! I just, er, must’ve slept weird or something because my shirt doesn’t normally leave marks on my skin like this when I sleep in it, and those things itch.”

“You did sleep weird, when I woke up you were face-down on my legs, your entire body flipped around from how it was when you went to sleep. Why did you do that?” Going back to her cleaning, Ophelia expected some explanation to follow her question, but the only thing that came was some sort of fabric hitting the back of her head. Turning this time, she realized it was the shirt Soleil had been wearing, and she only knew this because she was now sitting on the bed in just an undershirt, scratching at clearly reddened skin. “And why are you undressing without something to change into?”

“I told you, the marks itch. The shirt was just in the way so I lost it.” She shrugged, not seeing anything wrong with what she’d done at all, although the confused look Ophelia was giving her was making her think twice on the matter. “Is it okay that I stripped down a bit? I mean, we’re related, it should be all good.”

Ophelia nodded, turning back to her cleaning once again. “It’s fine, you just hit me with your shirt and—“

“Okay cool, then if you don’t mind, I’ll take my pants off too.” The resulting command to not do that came out a bit louder than Ophelia had intended for it to, but she felt like stopping Soleil from getting undressed any further was more important than respecting volume levels in the house. But she had forgotten to consider any yelling coming from her room would worry her parents if they heard it, due to her being such a soft-spoken girl, and so the door came open moments later, the person checking in on them being greeted with the sight of a half-shirtless girl on the bed and the other girl, a shirt that wasn’t her own draped on her back, sitting on the floor.

“I was going to ask if you two were okay in here, or maybe if you’d found a bug or something, but I can tell just looking in here that it’s nothing like that.” The voice at the door was unimpressed, and whoever it was standing there was making Soleil give small apologies just by being present. “It shouldn’t be a surprise to me, finding out you’re making people scream by just being yourself, Soleil. You really need to work on that.”

“I know I do, Mom, but it’s not every day that I’m somewhere like this.” Although she wasn’t looking at them, preferring not to see a mother scolding her child if she could help it, Ophelia did hear Soleil get up off the bed and take something from her mother, the door closing once the exchange was finished. “Ugh, mothers, am I right? Mine’s always breathing down my neck like she’s scared I’m going to do something. What could I do? I get cold feet whenever I interact with basically anyone.”

“You seem to be interacting with me just fine,” Ophelia pointed out, “and maybe she’s scared that you’re going to make me into someone like you. Which I wouldn’t be upset about, don’t worry, but my mother certainly would be.”

“Funny you mention being like me, because boy do I have a present for you!” At the mention of a present, Ophelia got up from her spot on the floor to see what Soleil could be talking about, to find the girl rummaging through a bag, the thing her mother must have come to bring her. “Just, ugh, let me find it in here. Damn mom of mine, always making sure I have everything and then some, I only needed some cute clothes for the parade tomorrow, not an entire disguise in case someone came hunting for me.” As she ranted, she pulled out masks and smaller bags that she didn’t even bother going through, tossing them aside into the mess of Ophelia’s room. Eventually, at the very bottom of her bag (and after finding a clean shirt to put on herself), she found what she was looking for: easily the skimpiest outfit Ophelia had seen in her relatively sheltered life.

“I don’t think I like where this is going, Soleil…” Covering her mouth with one hand and shaking the other hand to deny the gift, Ophelia physically shrunk away as Soleil pushed the article of clothing at her. “No, I can’t! Mother doesn’t let Nana wear that sort of thing around, why would she ever allow for me to do it?”

“Because you’re trying to be a dark mage and that’s what dark mages do?” Surprised that she even knew that part about her, Ophelia was about to ask Soleil where she’d heard that, but she was given her answer before she was able to get a single word out. “How do you think you got your tome for your birthday? My mom had to find somewhere that would sell one to the not-actual-princess of Ylisse, and then she had to send it here to your parents so they could give it to you. And now I’m giving you your cool costume for when you use it.”

The idea of having a costume, and therefore a stage presence, for when she was using her new tome sat well inside of Ophelia, and so, despite her reservations with taking the clothing, she grabbed it and pulled it in close to her. “I accept this gift. Thanks, Soleil. You’re too kind to me.”

“Aw, I’m just being a good friend and cousin, no big deal.” Waving the thanks away, she turned to face away from Ophelia and bent down to grab one of the things she’d tossed out of her bag, which turned out to be a headband that she put on, it immediately doing the job of keeping her blue hair out of her face while she picked up her mess. “Now I’m going to go out to see what the plan for today is, you keep that outfit for when you’re ready to make your first appearance as a dark mage.”

Ophelia nodded, still holding the clothes close to her chest. “I’ll treasure this just like I treasure my tomes, each and every one. It needs a name, though.” Soleil groaned at the prospect of sitting through a naming session, something Ophelia found odd, as they’d never been around one another when she’d had one. The reasoning for that came out before the older girl left the room, as she said that she didn’t care for naming things because of some of the stories she’d heard of certain others naming everything they owned. “Oh, that makes sense. You go on and do whatever, I’ll stay in here until I’ve thought of a good name.”

This time, she wasn’t going to allow her mother to intrude on her naming process, nor was she going to let anyone else have a hand in it. The name for this costume was going to come straight from Ophelia’s heart, and she needed to really think of what it should be—or, as she came to realize, what it needed to represent. “Maybe it’s not the clothing itself that needs a name, but rather it’s me that needs one for the moment! But what’s a good name for myself to go by when I am in the ‘character’ of…” Her voice trailed off as a thought overtook her mind, one unrelated to her situation yet inspiring nonetheless. It was of her father and one of his many stories, and how he told the story as if he was a witness to the very deeds he was talking about having done. The name he would use would change depending on the circumstances: in stories of dramatic natures, he would use dramatic names, and ones that ended in tragedy had him with a name that elicited thoughts of revenge. But in this particular story she was remembering him telling her, it wasn’t drama or tragedy that marked the tale. Instead it was the simple aspect of adventure and how he craved it. What was the name he had used for himself in that one, though?

“If my father is the chosen hero he always claims himself to be, that must mean I’m fated for the same greatness he is,” she whispered to herself, smacking her forehead as she spoke. “I shall become a chosen heroine, with the name of…” Once again her voice trailed, but when it picked back up it was louder in volume, even if it was soft like normal. “Ophelia Dusk! That’s a perfect name for a young maiden training in dark magic!”

On the other side of her door, she could hear someone laughing, followed by Soleil calling out, “She came up with a name already, so stop placing bets or whatever it was you were doing! We’ve got to get to training so she can impress us all, right?”

From further into the house, Ophelia could hear her father reply, “Is there any other choice? My little girl, grown up enough to need a battle name! I’m so proud of her!” That was, naturally, followed by more laughter from close by, accompanied by something, most likely Soleil’s hand, hitting the door to catch the girl in the room’s attention. She must not have known that the door would creak open at the force, because she screeched in shock on the other side, bolting away before Ophelia could get out to see what was going on.

This was most definitely a strange bunch living under the bonds of being a family, and she was pretty sure she didn’t want or need it any other way.

* * *

Getting permission to actually go out and train alongside everyone else was a struggle that Ophelia wished she hadn’t had to go through. Her mother was so particular about her doing everything as she was told to, from making sure to eat a good breakfast to getting all the housework done, that it was nearly time for everyone to come back in for lunch before she was given permission to join them outside. “I suppose there’s nothing else for me to keep you in here with,” Nah admitted, ruffling Ophelia’s hair as she spoke, while the girl stood impatiently, holding her dark magic tome behind her. “Minus not having given your new clothes my stamp of approval, that is.”

Shivers coursed down Ophelia’s spine as she looked down at herself, knowing her skimpy little dark mage outfit, ill-fitting over her tiny frame with its lack of curves to hold anything in place, was under the baggy clothes she’d dug out of her belongings. “I’m sure you’ll love them when you see them, Mother,” she finally said, trying to break away from Nah before she could say anything else to stop her from going out. “Besides, it’s only a costume, not anything for casual wear.”

Without blinking or hesitating, Nah called the exact problem that her daughter was trying to skirt around. “Soleil got you something for some older and more mature-looking than you, didn’t she? Go change out of it, it’s nothing you need to be wearing as a girl with your upbringing. And I’ll be making sure to talk to her parents to let them know that—Ophelia get back here!” She had gotten so absorbed in her mothering duties that she let her hand draw back from her daughter, therefore letting her sneak out of the room and outside, the sound of the door slamming shut alerting her to what had happened. “Ugh, just like her father, always ready to sneak out and get to her adventures.”

“Your mother keeping you inside to stop you from practicing your magic? I don’t know why she’s so against you doing anything but using your dragon powers, but whatever.” Shrugging the whole situation off, and ignoring the fact that he could see Nah poking her head out the door to see what her daughter was planning to do, Owain clasped his hands together, a giddy expression appearing on his face. “I’m so thrilled you’re actually going with this magic thing! And dark magic, at that! Not everyone can do that. _I_ wish I could do that.”

“It’s okay, Father. I’ll do it for the both of us.” Ophelia pulled her tome from behind her and pushed it at him, spine facing up. “Here, you hold Cosmic Sucker Punch while I prepare for my big reveal as the heroic mage I was destined to be!” He shook with excitement as he took the book, admiring the name for it that was taped to its spine, while she could feel herself beginning to tremble as she slowly, carefully, took off the clothes covering the costume she was wearing underneath.

The sounds of everyone getting their first glimpse of her in her gifted outfit were catching her by surprise. Soleil was cheering, thrilled to see her gift being used already, while both of her parents were asking each other which one had allowed their child to buy something that revealing for someone. Owain was still engrossed in looking at the name his daughter had given her tome, but when he looked up and saw her standing in front of him with very little yellow and black fabric covering her body, his jaw dropped, eyes going wide and all excitement leaving his face. “Ophelia, that’s, uh, a unique outfit you’ve got for this. You realize battle wear needs to be practical, right?”

“It’s perfectly practical for what I aim to do as the chosen heroine Ophelia Dusk, thank you very much!” Tossing her clothes that she’d been using to cover her costume aside, she took the tome back from her father’s hands, flipping open to the first page. “Now let’s get to the practicing of my magic, shall we? Oh I cannot wait to get to cast my first dark spell!”

She was stopped by small hands grabbing her shoulders, trying to pull her back into the house. “Not so fast, miss. You don’t get to duck out on your mother giving you instructions and then proceed to prove her right.” Nah sounded angry as she spoke, attempting to get Ophelia back into the house before she could do anything at all. The girl was sputtering reasons for why she shouldn’t have to, every single one being silenced by her mother simply telling her, “You’re too young for this, no arguing.”

“Hey, why don’t you just let her do it this one time?” Without thinking about consequences of her actions, Soleil tossed her dulled blade aside and bounded to be at Ophelia’s side, grabbing her shoulders over Nah’s hands and trying to pull the girl back forward. “It’s not like it’s going to harm anyone! She looks cute and…oh gods Ophelia have I gotten to tell you that you look cute in that outfit?”

“Your opinion is nice to hear, Soleil, but this is my daughter and I am going to make her follow my rules. That means no wearing something this revealing.” As Soleil let go, giving up the battle, Nah also stopped trying to drag Ophelia, sighing as she did. “But, at the same time, who is it really hurting? Aside from myself, of course. Spend fourteen years trying to keep the girl from doing this thing just for a visitor to enable it.”

Ophelia refrained from saying anything about her mother’s defeat then until Nah was back inside, watching their practicing from in the house like she normally did. Even then, when she did talk, she spoke only to Soleil, who had gone back and picked up her sword once more to at least look like she was practicing with it while standing by the younger girl’s side. “I just can’t believe you got Mother to back down about me wearing this!” she gushed, bouncing around a bit with her tome in hand, preparing herself to start firing spells at any moment. “I just needed a strong cousin-figure in my life to get some loosening of rules, it seems!”

Her eyes following Ophelia’s every movement, Soleil knew her face was starting to turn pink judging by how warm it was starting to feel, so she looked away and waved her sword in the direction of their fathers, whom were fighting with their own blades. “No, you just needed to have a big group out here trying to get a practice fight going to get her to back off a bit. There’s no need to thank me for it, nope no way.”

“Why do you sound like you’re embarrassed by me giving you credit?” Stopping her spinning, Ophelia crept closer to Soleil, getting up on her tiptoes and noticing the older girl’s rapidly-reddening face. “And you look like you are too! What’s going on?”

“S-stop staring at me, will you?” Soleil stammered, instinctively swinging out with her sword and knocking Ophelia to the ground with her arm (and thankfully not her blade). The moment she realized what she’d done, she drew in a sharp breath and dropped to her knees, covering her mouth with one hand as she looked at Ophelia. “Gods damn it, I didn’t mean to knock you over…”

“I deserved it, I got in your face and I deserved to be hit like that.” Glancing around, Ophelia noticed that, in her fall, she had thrown her tome from her hands to somewhere a few steps away, and it was now sitting half-submerged in a puddle along the freshly-watered farmland they were practicing on. “Oh no, my tome! Cosmic Sucker Punch!”

“Your tome?” Soleil followed Ophelia’s line of sight and saw the same sight that she was, the book’s pages quickly becoming ruined by the muddy water. She jumped up and ran to get it, picking it up and finding the water just dripping off of it. Her heart was sinking as she came back to Ophelia’s side, handing her the destroyed book. “I, uh, didn’t mean for this to happen. You were so excited about this and I ruined it, didn’t I?”

The girl, taking her book back and seeing how it was damaged beyond use without her casting a single spell out of it, gave a small nod. “You did, but it’s okay. This is the way fate wanted my debut as Ophelia Dusk to go, and I won’t question it.” Soleil helped her back up to her feet, and after giving a broken sigh, the younger girl turned to head back to the house. “I’ll grab one of my other tomes and change into something age-appropriate, I don’t want us to not practice our battle skills just because I don’t have my dark tome.”

Soleil’s words of rebuttal were lost to a gaping mouth, as she sputtered trying to get anything out but was too entranced by watching Ophelia walk away, her long hair swaying in time with what little hips she had. Her face was flushing once more, a feeling she didn’t like taking over her body, and she had to turn and cover her face in the crook of her arm to try collecting herself. By the time Ophelia came back, the episode was over and Soleil had moved past it, but for the rest of the day, she would catch herself looking in the direction of the once-again-modestly dressed girl, a smile forming on her lips until she saw how despondent the girl looked due to what she’d lost.

Things between them had just gotten a bit complicated, hadn’t they?


	2. you've been on my mind girl

Everyone staying at the house left just before dawn to get into Ylisstol in time for the parade, climbing onto horses to make the journey faster for themselves. Even with the aid, it was still a trip that took a couple hours to complete, and once they were arriving into the city’s outskirts, they were brought to a dead halt by the person leading their charge. “I promised some others we would wait around here for them to come in for the day’s events, and I’m not going back on that.” Crossing her arms over her chest, Lucina looked at everyone who was gathered around here, sighing when she realized that they weren’t going to just accept that as a reason for not moving on. “I figured it would be easier if a big group of us went into town together, not just the few of us that are here.”

“Noble decision-making there, Lucina, but I think you should have run it by everyone before you decided on it.” From atop his own horse, Inigo nudged an elbow in her direction, causing her to roll her eyes. “I’m just saying, some of us might want to get into town now, not spending the day waiting around for others who might not come.”

“They will come,” she snapped right back, smacking his elbow away, “because I know that the kids they’re in charge of will want to be there for their friend on her birthday.” She cast a begging look towards Kjelle, hoping her sister would follow up with some assuring comment.

Instead, Kjelle, riding behind Soleil once again on their horse, shook her head. “I doubt either of them will be making it today, so what’s the point in hanging around here? If you want to waste your time, go on ahead, but I want to get there early to speak with our parents before the events.” With that, she motioned for her niece to take the reins and move on, but they were stopped by both of Soleil’s parents asking them to not go.

“We’re not splitting the group up right now! Either we all stay or we all go, and I promised several people that we would stay.” Looking towards the horizon, where people coming into town for the parade could be seen on occasion, Lucina turned back to everyone else after a few moments. “Let’s just take a vote to see what we do then, shall we?”

“Is a vote necessary? Splitting up the group won’t end badly, not if the people you claim are coming are actually coming. Which they aren’t, but you’re a strong warrior, you can handle your own if people get to attacking you.” Now getting ready to take the lead and get their movement happening once more, the thing that stopped Inigo from actually moving on was a small and kind voice asking him to stop. “Er, what’s your reason for us staying around here, Ophelia? Don’t tell me you’re buying into whatever it is Lucina’s saying.”

Going from looking to her father, who was equally as eager to get going as one of his cousins and the other’s husband were, to looking out in the same direction that Lucina had been before, Ophelia shrugged. “I just think that waiting would be best, that’s all. If people do join us here, I want to see which friends of mine come along for the day!”

“Then it’s settled, as long as she wants to stay, we’re staying too!” Not taking a moment to reconsider, and earning the grumbles and displeasure of everyone else, Owain jumped off the horse he was riding and stretched once his feet were down on the ground. “Come on, it’s not that bad of an idea. Lucina doesn’t tell us to do stupid things without a good reason for it, now does she?”

“Yes, exact—okay, Owain, that was a bit uncalled for.” Lucina noted how he was starting to laugh at his own backhanded compliment, her face scrunching up at his behavior. “My ideas are well thought out, and I assure you that we won’t be waiting here long for anyone else to join us.”

Even with that being said, people still wanted to go, although some changes of heart had taken place due to others’ stances on the matter, and so the group was severed in two, some horse-swapping happen in order for everyone to continue on their journey without disruption. When all was said and done, it was just Lucina, Owain, and the two younger girls left there waiting, watching first as the rest of their party left before moving to watching in the direction that people they knew should have been coming from. “Are you positive you actually told them you’d wait, and that they said they were coming?” Owain asked, scratching at the back of his head as he glanced at his cousin, her face looking as if it were made of stone as she stared intently into the distance. “Or did you just imagine all of it?”

“I could recount the exact conversation if I chose to. They are coming.” Not breaking her concentration, Lucina lifted a hand and pointed it towards Soleil, who looked a bit taken aback by her mother motioning towards her until she heard why. “Soleil was there when it happened, she could tell you just like I am that this was said.”

“I…can?” Tilting her head and trying to recall her being present for the aforementioned conversation, it took a few moments before Soleil was perking back up, nodding as she did. “Right, I can! I remember it clearly, we were having a nice tea with big Severa and big Noire and the parade got brought up, and they said that they would come, along with the younger thems as well! Is that what you’re talking about, Mom?”

As her cousin groaned beside her at mention of the two ladies, Lucina smiled and gave her daughter a quick thumbs-up. “That’s exactly it. While I doubt that all four of them will be making it, I’m positive that at least two of them will be along any minute now.” That minute quickly passed, as well as many subsequent ones, and it felt like maybe they’d been duped after all. It was beginning to weigh heavily on Lucina, as she heard the occasional impatient grumble from the three people she was waiting there with, and just as she was beginning to lose all hope a sight she’d been waiting to see came into view. “I believe they’re almost here,” she announced to everyone, “so look like we haven’t been waiting here for long.”

Based on the reactions the four of them got when three others joined them, someone in the group had failed to heed the direction of not looking like they’d been waiting. “Uh, why’s it look like someone’s fallen asleep riding a horse?” a snobbish voice asked, coupled with nearly the exact same voice repeating the question, except to Soleil (and only to Soleil).

Since she was the one who’d been asked in specific, Soleil was the one who looked over onto Ophelia’s horse and saw her sitting half-asleep, trying her hardest to not doze off in the sunlight. “I’m pretty sure she did fall asleep, that’s why she looks that way, Severa,” she replied, before grabbing the person who’d asked her and bringing her in for a hug. “Now why’d you take so long on getting here? Your older self decide she was going to take all day getting ready again?”

“More like, she decided to take hours searching around for where her husband went so that she made sure he didn’t want to come with, which clearly he didn’t.” Sounding displeased, the younger Severa looked back at her older self, who was still waiting for someone to answer her previous question. “You hear that? I think you wasting our time, and their time, for someone who isn’t even worth it was a bad idea!”

“You shut it or I’m sending you to live with your mother again.” That interruption settled, older Severa put her hands to her cheeks and gave a big, fake smile in Lucina’s direction. “Sorry about her, but you know how I was growing up. Nothing we can do about it except threaten action.”

“I’m sure there are plenty of other things we can do to prevent her from becoming just like you, but I’ll let it slide. What took you so long?” The sound of a loud groan coming from someone else, someone who had already explained the delay, caught Lucina’s ear, but she said nothing about it because she wanted an answer from the person she was talking to, not the younger version of them.

As it happened, however, it was Noire who ended up explaining what went wrong, as Severa decided she was going to give her younger self a talking-to regarding interruptions, complete with enough yelling to raise the dead. “Well it started when little me and I got stuck waiting for them to get to Ylisse from their valley, and once they showed up, hours later than they were supposed to, little me decided she was going to skip the parade and just come into town on her own time.” She sighed, running a hand through her bright white hair to collect her thoughts. “And then it was a couple hours of listening to the two of them fight back and forth while we rushed to get here, and now we’ve arrived.”

“Sounds like you had it a lot rougher than we did, and that includes us sitting here for a long time, as evidenced by someone,” she turned back and motioned towards Ophelia, who was still somehow half-asleep even with the yelling nearby, “trying to get a nap in after the journey out here.”

“Not to mention the part where everyone else bailed on us because they thought you were, in fact, not coming and therefore waiting was a waste of time.” Offering a hand for Noire to shake, Owain wasn’t surprised in the slightest when she ignored it completely, him withdrawing it before anyone could bring attention to what he’d done. “Now we’ve got to get into town without causing a scene and find everyone else. I hope they haven’t started any fights, not without us present.”

“Are you saying that because you want to be in a fight, or because you want to put an end to one?” Lucina teasingly asked, her cousin shrugging in response. “Yes, well, either way, I’m sure no fights will have broken out with your wife there with them. Can you imagine her allowing anything of that sort happening in her presence? She’s more adult than most adults combined at times.”

“I would love to get to talk with her while we’re at the parade,” Noire said, letting her head fall as she spoke. “It’s been a while since I got to talk to her, and she’s always so sensible and level-headed and I miss it.”

That comment inspired Lucina to take her horse’s reins and ask, “What’s stopping us from going, then?” which, in turn, got Owain to spook his horse into breaking into a fast run, him barely on its back. While everyone who was watching got a good laugh out of it, himself included, the answer to Lucina’s question still hadn’t been given, and so it was decided that leaving then was best. The three who were paying attention, once they were all in position to go, started heading into town, and once she realized her same-age friends were leaving, the older Severa gave her younger self one last non-threatening warning before following after them.

This left just the younger three ladies sitting there, Soleil watching Ophelia as she drifted in and out of sleep while young Severa muttered things to herself about how much she hated the person she was going to end up growing up to become. It was a few minutes before any of them realized that they had been left, and even then, it wasn’t seen as a big deal: “Oh great, looks like loser me decided she was going to get away from us, and she took all her friends with her,” Severa coldly said, rolling her eyes. “Whatever will we do?”

“Did you say she took them with her?” Being brought back to reality with that information, Soleil shook her head to clear her thoughts before looking to see that her friend was, in fact, not lying about everyone else being gone. “What are we supposed to do without them to lead us? Does it look like I know my way to the center part of Ylisstol? I’ve never even been to the castle before, I can’t lead us there!”

“Calm down, we’ve got this.” Severa cupped her hands around her mouth and screamed as loudly as she could through them, trying to wake Ophelia up with the noise, but all she managed to do was startle every horse that was present. “Damn it, never would have taken her for being a heavy sleeper. Used to me and being woken up by every little thing in the world at night. Like, for instance, one time there was a wyvern trying to get into my room while I was sleeping and—“

“You know what, I’m sure it’s a great story, but right now isn’t the time for stories!” Mentally scolding herself for letting watching her second cousin sleep take priority over making sure to stay with the group, Soleil reached over and shook Ophelia until she woke up, the smaller girl looking around wildly and dazed once she was awake. “Listen, Ophelia, we’re separated from everyone and need to know where to go. Got any ideas?”

“Any…ideas? Where are we?” Clearly her little nap had muddled Ophelia’s mind, as she was struggling to piece together everything that was happening, but after Soleil gave a quick rundown on what she’d been through before sleeping, she was ready to be of any help she possibly could. “Okay, so I’ve never been to the castle myself either, but I do remember where my grandmother’s house is, and I know that’s somewhat near the castle. Or maybe it’s not near the castle at all and we went walking somewhere nearby it?”

“Ugh, you mean that neither of you, who are _descended from royalty_ , know where the castle in Ylisstol is? How lame can you be?” Severa huffed, preparing herself to turn her back on her companions to find her own way. “I guess I’ll just have to remember where my mother showed me the castle being the one time she took me there. Of course, remembering that reminds me of some of the other things that happened that day, but whatever.”

Now it was Soleil’s turn to take a deep breath, gritting her teeth as she replied, “You mean you’re making a big deal about not knowing where to go when you actually do know where to go? What kind of friend are you?”

“One that doesn’t want to be dwelling on bad memories just to help your sorry behinds out, gods!” Taking hold of one of her long, green-ish pigtails, Severa made sure to whip it behind her, smacking Soleil in the arm with it, before starting them on their journey, the other two following behind if only because they had no other choice. “Great, now I have to lead you both into town and probably straight into wherever my mother is. Do you think she’ll be out and about for the parade, or do you think she’ll be hiding to avoid me and older me?”

“I don’t think I want to talk to you about anything right now,” Soleil bluntly stated, before casting a look over at Ophelia, the young dragon girl focused only on getting her horse moving in the correct direction. “Although I think I would be honored to get to talk to Ophelia a bit, if she’s up for it.”

“I’m not much for conversations when I’m doing something,” Ophelia replied, her gaze not wavering, “especially not when I’m doing something as involved as riding a horse. Why, you’ve seen me attempting to talk while doing anything else, it never ends well for me.”

“But you’re just…okay, I’ll give you that, you’re not the most graceful person I’ve ever met. But you know what, neither am I, so maybe we should—whoa!” Without realizing she was doing it, Soleil had started steering her horse towards Ophelia’s, and was left to rapidly correct the path so that a collision wouldn’t occur.

“Ha, maybe you should pay as much attention to riding as I am, Soleil.” Her eyes not straying off the path before them, Ophelia laughed. “How funny that I was talking about, well, talking not ending well for me, and it ended up being your downfall instead!”

“Can you two please shut up and just ride? If you don’t want to talk to me, I don’t want you trying to talk to her either, okay?” Sounding agitated as always, Severa waited until she got a mumbled apology from Soleil (as well as one from Ophelia, although she hadn’t done anything wrong) before she said anything else. “There we go, now it’s nice and quiet back there and I’m not having to listen to your voice going towards anyone but me.”

Soleil rolled her eyes, having to steer her horse straight once more as it was drifting towards the line Ophelia’s was taking. “Sounds like someone’s had a horrible day that they need to talk out to someone who’ll listen, and I guess you think that’s going to be me. What’s the matter, Severa? Do I need to beat someone up for you?”

“Yes, and her name is Soleil.” Whipping her head around to look back at her blue-haired friend, Severa took great pleasure in seeing the confused expression worm its way onto Soleil’s face. As she turned back around to face the road, she smirked and added, “I’m just answering your question. No one gets away with convincing my exes to start _flirting_ with each other and survives it.”

“Convincing your…oh, which ones?” The confusion gone at the explanation, Soleil’s eyes were now shining at the prospect that her intervention between two parties, even though she had no clue which parties they were, had been successful. “When are they going to get together, if they aren’t already? This is exciting stuff, don’t you think?”

“It would be more exciting if they weren’t guys I’d dated!” Severa pursed her lips together and gave a huffy breath, annoyed at having to recount memories she wasn’t thrilled with. “I can’t believe we’re going to go to this stupid parade and I’m probably going to have to see them making kissy faces at each other! It’s bad enough that this whole thing is in honor of my dumb ex-girlfriend, but now I have to deal with _them_ as well!”

Tapping her chin in thought, Soleil couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter when she realized who Severa was talking about. “Oh gods, you mean they’re actually flirting? I didn’t think either of them had it in them to go for it, but good for them!” She heard a soft noise of questioning come from the horse next to hers, and when she looked over she saw Ophelia, head tilted in her direction, going wide-eyed as she tried to understand what was being discussed. “Don’t worry about this one, Ophelia. It’s stuff us older girls have to deal with.”

“Older girls? Soleil, I’m only two years younger than you, that’s not nearly enough of an age gap to justify calling yourself an ‘older girl’ when compared to me.” Turning her head back to focusing on riding the horse like she should have, Ophelia audibly scoffed at what she’d just been told. “If it was Severa saying that, I could forgive it because four years is a bigger gap than two, but…”

“Maybe wording it that way was wrong,” Soleil admitted, not liking hearing Ophelia upset with her. “I should have said, this is stuff that us girls who have romantic interests in others have to deal with. Since you’ve never loved anyone more than your parents, that group doesn’t apply to you.” While her second cousin accepted that answer, giving a couple of small nods before dropping the conversation entirely, Soleil knew that what she’d just said was a complete lie. That wasn’t an appropriate descriptor for why the conversation needed to stay between the two older girls—but what was appropriate wasn’t exactly something she wanted to be admitting to, not in front of anyone. She couldn’t matter-of-factly state that the reason it was meant to be a conversation between herself and Severa, Ophelia not included, was because Ophelia was too strange to be involved in the social circle that they were.

At least, she couldn’t say it. Severa, on the other hand, had no problems with throwing negative things in someone’s direction, regardless of if they deserved it or not. “Why is it about if she’s ever liked anyone? Not everyone’s going to have as extensive of crush and dating histories as we are, Soleil, but they can still talk to us when we’re complaining or cheering about other people dating.” That was when she chuckled to herself, moving her head in a way to toss her hair around a bit before she continued speaking, Soleil listening and dreading every word. “However, you’ve got to, you know, actually know the people you’re talking about before you start talking about them. Doesn’t work when you’re just some weird kid who lives out on a farm reading books all day.”

“Is that what you think of me? That I’m a weird kid?” Ophelia asked, her voice cracking as she spoke. Hearing her sound so hurt by the words made Soleil cringe a little, her soul hurting on Ophelia’s behalf, but she didn’t dare speak up in case Severa caught on to what was potentially brewing there between the two.

“Wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t think it,” Severa bluntly replied, whipping her hair again. “Don’t worry, there’s tons of other weirdos like you out there. I’m sure you’ll find yourself a match someday, someone that enjoys nerds like you.”

Someone who enjoyed nerds like Ophelia happened to be bearing witness to this conversation yet staying quiet during it, still biding her time in case she misspoke and outed her interest to everyone. “But…why would you think that? Haven’t we been friends for a very long time? That’s what you say every time you see me!” Ophelia was on the verge of tears although she didn’t want to show it, even though the evidence was incredibly strong just in her voice. “Are you saying you’ve lied to me every time we’ve interacted?”

“I wouldn’t say it’s lying, because we _are_ friends, sure, but you and everyone else? You’d be lucky to find any friends that aren’t right here with you!” Throwing her head back in laughter, Severa took a few seconds to make sure that she could hear Ophelia gasp in shock at the revelation. “That’s right, everyone that’s ever said they’re your friend? Consider them the liar here, not me. I’m just the messenger to the truth.”

“That’s enough now, Severa,” Soleil finally cut in, having heard enough to know she needed to take a stand. “While you’re right that she might not have many friends that aren’t right here, you didn’t need to tell her it like that. You’ve probably broken her heart and crushed her spirits, which isn’t something she deserves right now.” She looked over to Ophelia, who was blinking away tears as she tried to hold her composure for as long as possible. “Hey, there’s no need to cry, so what if our friends are kind of jerks and don’t like you that much? Goes to show what kind of trash they enjoy hanging out with, if they’re friends with Severa and not you, am I right?”

“B-but the little version of my father, he’s friends with her, isn’t he?” Ophelia glanced over at Soleil through teary eyes, and was surprised to see the blue-haired girl shaking her head rapidly, as well as moving one hand back and forth in front of her throat. “He isn’t? What a surprise that is…”

“We don’t, uh, talk about him to her anymore, not after what happened between them, and especially not after what she’s told me here today.” Dropping her hand back down to take her horse’s reins, Soleil continued to shake her head for a moment, thoughts lingering in her mind about how pitiful her cousin looked and how it was partially her fault that she was like this (not to mention how adorable she was when she was crying, but that wasn’t a thought she wanted to be having and she knew it). “Here, let’s just act like none of this happened right now, and once the parade’s over and we can talk just the two of us, I’ll explain everything to you, I promise.”

“I have no reason to not believe you,” Ophelia decided, sniffling after her words were out. “Now let me focus on my horse, it’s a miracle I haven’t fallen off once today and I don’t want that to change.”

Soleil was more than okay with granting Ophelia her one request right then, especially when she thought about how doing that was the result of her agreeing to some one-on-one time between them. While the past two nights had been plenty great of time to be spending with her, something about the fact that they were both asleep for most of it made her long for this awake time spent with such a radiant beauty. As she thought about how nice she thought Ophelia was, her cheeks were lighting up faster than the morning’s skies—something that Severa saw when she turned back to see why her friend had hushed up so quickly.

“Oh my _gods_ you’re totally crushing on someone here, aren’t you?” she loudly asked, hoping to disturb Ophelia from her focus once more, a task that seemed futile as the younger girl didn’t so much as perk up an ear at the sound. After glancing to see that defeat, Severa rolled her eyes before grinning in Soleil’s direction, while she was looking more and more sheepish at the moment. “You don’t have to hide it from me. We all know that everyone wants a piece of me, just didn’t think you were one of them.”

As quickly as the color had appeared, it was disappearing from Soleil’s cheeks even faster, her cringing on the inside not just at Severa’s question, but at her jumped-to conclusion. It was definitely more socially acceptable for that outcome, although at the same time there was a whole host of problems that came along with being involved with Severa in any way that wasn’t just friendship. “Er, I guess I’d never seen you in the way I have today,” she said, gritting her teeth as she spoke. “Must say, the view I’ve got’s a pretty great one.”

“You’re a lot more smooth than I would have given you credit for. Used to heard you sputter and stumble over your words whenever you’re flustered with someone.” Thinking on that for a second, Severa shrugged it off and went back to properly riding her horse. “We’ll have to talk about this some more later, after you have your stupid talk with Ophelia there, and after this whole stupid parade. Can’t hook up when my exes are around, you know.”

Cringing, Soleil nodded, thankful she wouldn’t be seen for either action. “I wouldn’t exactly know that, but I’ll go with you on it.” Their conversation ended then, as they were getting to the point where conversations occurring around them between strangers were beginning to drown out their talking, as well as their thoughts. To make sure that they all didn’t end up separated, it was best to stop idle chitchat and begin focusing only on getting to the preferred meeting spot for their group at the parade. With Severa still taking the lead, her pride and strong-headedness getting them to where they needed to get through some yelling at strangers and some guesswork, Soleil took on the job of making sure that Ophelia didn’t get distracted and separated from them. She already felt bad that the little dragon girl had gotten separated from their parents and the rest of the group, so making her get lost even further was the last thing she wanted to have happen.

But every time Soleil would reach out to steer Ophelia and her horse back in the correct direction, she would hesitate, her hand pulling back before she could do anything, and Ophelia would happen to look up and see that she was drifting away, righting her course on her own. “I’m simply not made for riding horses, not even ones we’ve raised at home on the farm,” she admitted, after she’d had to bring herself back to following the others a few times. “Maybe, for this type of travel, riding with someone would be best for me.”

“If you find someone who will get your horse back to your house after this, I will so totally let you ride with me!” Forgetting that she was typically in charge of riding with her aunt Kjelle whenever they were on trips like this, Soleil pat the back of her horse a couple of times, looking in Ophelia’s direction with a smile, one that quickly snapped out of existence. “I-I mean, if you’d want. I’m sure you’d want to maybe, uh, ride with one of your parents, which would be totally cool too! Just know the offer’s on the table if you want it.”

She didn’t get an answer, Ophelia instantly going back to her way of focusing on the path in front of her over anything else, which gave Soleil the opportunity to curse at herself for blowing her moment with her cousin. How was she supposed to work through this not-so-harmless crush if she was still floundering like a lovesick animal when she said things to her? Maybe the idea of them having a private conversation wasn’t such a good one after all, but there was no backing out of it, not when she’d already told Ophelia it was happening. If only there would be something to distract them from that promise…

That “something” came in the form of reaching the place where everyone in their group had gathered, the girls arriving to find that a lot of people they hadn’t originally convened with were waiting there as well. While Soleil wasn’t surprised to see that the only people in her immediate family that were present were her parents and her aunt, Ophelia nearly fell off her horse as she tried to climb down from its back, excited to see that her sort-of-grandfather that she didn’t live with was there, talking to her dad with sweeping arm motions. “Papa Gregor, you’re here!” she squealed, once again almost taking herself out while dismounting the horse, but once her feet were on solid ground she was running to and throwing herself at the older man, whom had stopped his conversation to brace himself for the girl’s approach.

“Told you she’d be excited to see you,” Owain said, reaching out to try and pull his daughter back, but finding that she had dug her fingers in deep to get a good grip in her clinging hug. “It’s been a while since she last saw my half of the family. A girl like her can only take so much farming and dragon-ing at a time, you know?”

“Don’t think I didn’t hear that, you’re the one who’s always disappearing to who-knows-where, and I’m not going to come here into town with it just being me and Ophelia.” Nudging her husband in the side, Nah took a glance over at her own parents, as they were in the middle of their own conversation with a few of the other older generation members that had gathered there—ones that were making someone else that was present scowl. When her focus shifted back, she saw that she was being given a look by Owain that was only asking for an explanation for what she’d said. “Don’t act like you don’t know why I won’t come this far by myself. You’ve heard my mother talk about traveling alone, and your father knows a thing or two about what happens to lonely Manaketes.”

“Well, yeah, I know why you won’t make the trip, but…” Owain smiled at her before turning to his father once more, giving a one-shouldered shrug as he did. “Maybe they can come out to the farm sometime to visit themselves? It would probably be easier that way, especially if it’s at a time where I’m not around to escort and protect the lovely ladies in my life.” His hand raising to dramatically cover half of his face, he was expecting someone applauding his suggestion, but all he got was hearty laughter from his father, and it wasn’t even in regards to what he’d said.

“Little Ophelia, you are having fun with this big hug, yes?” Trying to get his granddaughter off of him much like her father already had, and having no success whatsoever, Gregor laughed once more as he rested a hand on the girl’s head while she nodded in response to his question. “What fun can a hug be? It is just arms around someone. Not all that fun.” She did reply to him, but her words were completely inaudible as her face was buried somewhere in his side, causing him to only laugh more. “Your speaking does the tickling thing while in this hug, is quite fun after all!”

“Oh, Papa Gregor, I miss you so much, I don’t ever want to let go of you!” Ophelia repeated, leaning her head back so she could be heard. “You’re so nice and funny and kind to me and I love spending time with you!”

“Your words are music to Gregor’s ears, very much appreciated.” He moved his hand through her hair, his fingers catching on her headpiece and ultimately getting wrapped up in it, something that only made him laugh harder. “Help, Owain, your child is clinging to me twice now.”

At the sight of his father’s hand intertwined with the fabric headpiece, Owain cracked a smile before saying, “That sounds like a problem you’ve got to fix on your own, I’m afraid. Although I’m sure it would be a lot easier if Ophelia would act her age and not her appearance, but…”

“Hey, I am too acting my age!” Finally letting go of her grandfather, as well as helping him get untangled, Ophelia jumped back and pointed an accusatory, yet playful, finger in her father’s direction. “I’ve seen all sorts of big adults do exactly what I was doing, and they do it for a lot longer than I did!” Propping her other hand on her hip, which she tilted out to make it look like she actually _had_ hips, she shook that pointed finger at him. “And, if they’re allowed to do it, I should be too! I’m a kid, that’s the kind of stuff I do!”

Raising his own hands defensively, Owain chuckled at how passionate his little girl had gotten at proving her point. He must have said something in response to her, but whatever it was, Soleil didn’t hear it as she was too busy watching Ophelia’s little stance and how she was trying so hard to present herself as older while still looking so young. Her staring and jaw-dropping at the girl’s behavior was quickly noticed by someone standing nearby, because she soon felt a strong hand brushing against the back of her neck, moving her hair off of it and over her shoulder, while the person said, “Sometimes I wish you had chosen to act like that when growing up, but then I look at you and I’m reminded that you were raised by a woman who has always been mature, from the moment she first entered the world.”

“I’m sure if I was like Ophelia, no one would like me, Dad,” she replied, turning to look up at Inigo’s face as he looked lovingly back down at her. “You know that none of my friends can stand her because she’s different from the rest of us. She’s cute, but she’s different.”

“That’s what we all were saying about her mother years ago, let me tell you. There’s a charm in those young-looking ones that can’t be found in anyone else.” Soleil raised her eyebrows at her father’s comment, causing him to backtrack with, “Not saying that I was ever attracted to that charm, mind you, because the noble and mature ones are more my style, but the points remains that women like that are a specific taste.”

Had she not had any sense about her, Soleil would have mentioned about how that taste might just have been one she had, but she knew that so much as hinting at any sort of love for her cousin would be frowned upon, so she merely laughed. “I hope someday I find what my taste in women is, because right now all I’m getting is…well, nothing.”

“You’re still young, you’ve still got time to find what you like. From what I hear, you’ve tried out quite a few ladies around where we live, so perhaps finding someone from a distance will do you good?” He glanced around, seeing if there were any off-handed suggestions he could make, and one came right to him as he reached looking over at the rest of the group. “For instance, why don’t you try getting with one of your friends? I know that you wouldn’t want to risk ruining a friendship, but—“’

“Dad, if you’re suggesting I date little Severa I’m going to cry.” Squinting a bit at what she’d just said, Soleil made a disgusted face at the words and feigned throwing up. “She’s a great friend, but she’s bossy and has a real problem with dating, uh, anyone.”

She was expecting him to give some speech about how she was just giving up before she tried, so when he took in a deep breath and nodded as he exhaled, she knew she’d hit on something good. “Don’t worry, I know that one from first-hand experience with her older version. Didn’t ever actually date her, mind you, but damn did I try to get with her and she’d always shut me down. Never quite understood how she got with who she did, but I will admit that her man’s quite the man with the ladies, even if he doesn’t try.”

“Huh, maybe I should take lessons from him instead of you, then.” The look of disgust on her face went back to a happy one, while her father’s turned to one of horror. “Don’t worry, Dad, I’m pretty sure Mom wouldn’t allow me to take women-getting lessons from anyone that didn’t raise me.”

“That would be correct, even though I’d prefer if you weren’t getting them from anyone.” Lucina’s entrance into the conversation came as a surprise, but she was there for a reason: within seconds of her last word to her daughter, she was wrapping an arm around her husband, leaning up against him with a sigh. “So much for me making that visit to my parents while we’re here. Thought Kjelle said she was going to come back so we could do that but she’s still gone. Do you think she realizes that I was serious about wanting to go, or do you think she thought I was just making a joke to her?”

“She knows you’re not one for casual joking like that, so I would assume that she either went on her own because you insisted on waiting to know Soleil was okay before you left, or that she found some friends and is now celebrating her birthday with them before the parade starts.” Inigo, reciprocating the half-hug to the best of his ability, heard Lucina sigh again and became concerned at the sound. “What’s wrong, do you not like the idea of her being in town by herself? Contrary to what you might think, she’s not incapable of holding her own. In fact, I’d wager she’d be best at holding her own out of all of us.”

“It’s nothing to do with her ‘holding her own’ out there, it’s that it’s her birthday and she’s nowhere to be found. But whatever, you’re right, she’s must likely having fun with whatever it is she’s doing.” For a third time Lucina sighed, before shaking her head to clear her mind of the troubling thoughts. “At any rate, we should see her again at the parade with any luck. However, we do need to make our way to our viewing spot, lest we want to lose out on actually seeing anything.”

Nodding in agreement, Inigo gave a sweeping look around at everyone else, seeing the conversations they’d gotten wrapped up in, and shrugged. “We can always go without them, watch without them, like the old days. Maybe we’ll find some new people to talk with while we’re watching, if our friends stay behind like they seem to want to!” His wife wasn’t thrilled with that suggestion, especially when they locked eyes after it and she was witness to his attempted seductive eyebrow waggle, but she went along with it.

That was, she went along with it for three whole steps before they were stopped by Soleil not budging an inch from where she stood. Playing the part of concerned mother, Lucina turned back and tilted her head slightly at her daughter’s frozen position. “Aren’t you going to come along with us?” she asked, to which Soleil shook her head. “Interesting. What’s keeping you from making this a family affair?”

“I think I want to watch the parade with Ophelia,” she said, her eyes drifting towards the dragon girl and her animated conversation with her parents and grandfather. “I don’t get to see her all that often, and with her birthday having been just last week and me missing it, plus me ruining her gift, I think I should make it up to her this way.”

There was a tone of sincerity in her voice that made Lucina automatically accept what she’d heard, although Inigo, having had the earlier conversation with his daughter that he had, wasn’t as quick to believe the words. “I don’t know,” he started to say, “this doesn’t seem quite like—“

He was silenced by Lucina putting her hand over his mouth, smiling as she did. “We’re not going to force her into coming with us. She came this far, if she wants to do the rest with Ophelia she can.” She nodded in Soleil’s direction, the girl’s face lighting up at the words. “You have fun, don’t cause any trouble, and don’t pick up any strange women while you’re alone. We can’t invite the ruffian population of Ylisstol back home.”

“You got it, Mom!” Thrilled to be given permission, Soleil gave her mother two thumbs up, then when her father’s mouth was uncovered and he tried to make more of a rebuttal, she simply stuck her tongue out at him and held the pose until they were gone, pushing through the crowd to find their spots. Once they were out of view, she clasped her hands together happily but did not move from where she stood, only choosing to look over at Ophelia and the conversation she was still having. If she looked for long enough, certainly someone would notice she was there, right?

It took a while, and it took someone who wasn’t even part of their conversation coming over, but eventually she was called out for idly watching. “Um, I don’t mean to disturb what you all have going on,” the gentle and calm voice belonging to Noire said, as she walked arm-in-arm with the older Severa to drag her away from the people they’d been talking to, “but I think you’ve been excluding someone from what you’re doing.”

“Excluding someone?” Sounding confused at the suggestion, Owain did a head-count of everyone in the conversation, ending his count on himself. “Well, aside from my mother, who couldn’t be here for obvious reasons, I don’t see anyone missing? How can we be excluding someone if…” He trailed off as Noire pointed towards Soleil and where she was watching, and his jaw hung open for a second before he collected himself and gave a small, understanding nod. “Now it makes sense. Hey, Soleil! What are you doing here alone?”

“I, uh, wanted to get to watch the parade with Ophelia,” she replied, stumbling over her words a bit as she started to speak. “But I didn’t want to, well, interrupt your family moment so I just watched until someone did it for me.”

“You want to watch with me?” Immediately getting distracted from talking to her grandfather, Ophelia twirled around like a young child, excited to hear what Soleil had just said, before freezing, cupping her face with her hands and gasping. “Is this when you’re going to talk to me about those things I’m apparently too young for? A private moment between dearest second cousins?”

“Something like that, yeah.” Her mind racing with possibilities of what they could do if they actually managed to go off alone, Soleil looked to Ophelia’s parents with a pleading look, forcing a smile as she did. “I promise I won’t let her get hurt or abducted or whatever it is you’re scared of having happen to her. I know my way around a fist fight if I need to protect someone I care about.” She flexed an arm to prove her point, and while neither Owain or Nah seemed to be excited about the idea of their daughter going off into the parade crowd with only one other person, they allowed it, their decision being made in time with the sound of trumpets blaring, instrumental music signaling the start of the festivities.

After saying a quick goodbye to her parents and getting in another hug with her grandfather, Ophelia ran to Soleil’s side, looking giddy as she did. “Come on, I’m sure you have some wonderful vantage point in mind where we’re going to watch the parade from, and I do not want to miss a second of what’s to happen!” she gushed, taking Soleil’s hand and squeezing it tightly. Their fingers weren’t interlocked, it was merely a familial hand-hold, but Soleil could feel her skin tingling from the dragon girl’s touch. That wasn’t the kind of thinking she should have been doing with someone related to her touching her, yet that’s exactly what she was doing.

It certainly made them finding somewhere up high and solitary a pressing matter, because if there was anything Soleil would have asked for in that moment, it was for a place where they wouldn’t be caught in case she said something that crossed the lines of their relationship. The last thing she needed was for someone to figure out that she had a bit of a crush on her second cousin, especially given what her position in the world (the daughter of some form of royalty) was. They did end up finding somewhere that gave them a beautiful view of the castle sitting in the center of Ylisstol, the presence of several banners bearing the symbol of the royal family within their sights.

Seeing the symbol made Ophelia reach for her arm, rubbing against where that very same mark was imprinted onto her skin, just like her father before her, while Soleil ran a finger across her eyebrow and around to under her eye, knowing that she held that same mark in the iris of her eye, exactly as her mother did. At the same time, in tune with the first of many cannons in the parade going off, the girls looked at each other and how they were touching at their own marks—Ophelia grinned at the action, while Soleil only felt regret for being interested in someone who shared the same blood as her.

“Isn’t this lovely?” Ophelia asked, looking back across to one of the banners, her hand still rubbing at her arm. “A perfect ceremony to celebrate something we love and appreciate so much, that being our family. Even though the family in the parade isn’t exactly the same as the family we know and love.”

“It’s pretty cool, I suppose.” Dropping her hand down to her chin, Soleil put a finger over her mouth as she watched the first of many throngs of people make their way down the parade route, every one of them riding horseback while playing various instruments. “Kind of wish we were part of the side of the family that gets to do this kind of stuff, but what can you expect? Some weird stuff happened in our parents’ time.”

Watching the horse-riding band with excitement shining in her eyes, Ophelia nodded enthusiastically. “Don’t we both know it! Growing up alongside our parents and their friends’ younger selves while they raise us at the same time their parents raise them? This is the stuff of novels and fairy tales, not reality!” She drew in a sharp breath, before exhaling it with a tinge of sadness. “But, of course, in those fairy tales I’m sure our parents’ younger selves would accept us both as our parents accept us.”

“Don’t talk like that, it’s not your fault that Severa got to your dad’s head and made him think you’re just some strange weirdo.” Her eyes were focusing anywhere but the parade, and at the same time the second cannon went off Soleil found faces she recognized down in the crowd below them; she was tempted to call down to the people she saw to try and bring them up to her viewing spot, but then the reminder that she’d come up there alone with Ophelia for a reason hit her in the form of Ophelia dramatically sighing.

“He should like me for being older him’s daughter, he shouldn’t have listened to her. If only there was a little version of my mother, she would certainly be my friend.” Now looking around just like her companion was, Ophelia too spotted the faces in the crowd, but her reaction was to pucker her lips and give an angry breath. “Oh how I despise seeing my father’s younger self, now knowing what I—gods, is he _kissing_ that boy?”

Soleil had only looked away from them for a second, her eyes moving to someone else that she knew (and that someone was looking back at her, never a good sign), but when Ophelia made her exclamation she looked to them once more. “It would seem that way. I guess Severa wasn’t lying when she said her exes were flirting.” She paused, her sight flickering back to the other person she’d been looking at, but they had disappeared in the few seconds she’d looked away. “Well, that’s going to make for a fun ride home.”

“How’s my father going to react when he hears about this? He’d never kiss a man, not when he has my mother around!” Looking horrified, Ophelia went back to watching the parade to calm herself down. More cannon-fire boomed through the town, each shot signifying a year in the life of the princess the parade was for, and every time one echoed through the crowd people would cheer, louder and louder each time. There were more groups of people on horseback coming through the path, some with instruments and others with weapons, each group carrying a large banner that represented the royal family of Ylisse.

This was how the halidom honored their crown birthdays, and this was easily one of the biggest events any of the people present would see that year, yet Soleil found herself paying less attention to the parade itself and more on the person she was watching it with. Ophelia’s reactions to every little thing were nothing short of adorable, and each time she’d gasp and scream at something, Soleil could feel herself smiling a bit more, her cheeks flushing until they had to be bright, noticeably red. For Ophelia to be right there and not call attention to Soleil’s change in appearance meant that she really was engrossed in the parade itself, a thankful happening.

After the second-to-last cannon shot rang through where they were, the loudest cheering yet could be heard heading in their direction, meaning that the royal family was beginning to make their way through the parade route. The first person to appear, sitting on the back of a horse with both feet on the same side, her skirt blowing in the gentle wind caused by her movement, made Ophelia scream louder than she had to that point. The force of her frantic waving, although it was not seen by the person she was waving at, nearly knocked her from their hiding spot and sent her tumbling into the crowd below, but she kept waving at her intense speed nonetheless. Once the person was past, she calmed down, collecting herself and looking to Soleil with wild eyes. “I didn’t know my grandmother was going to be in this parade!” she said, bouncing as she did. “That was so cool!”

“Means we both get to see our grandparents today, I suppose,” Soleil choked out, biting down on her lip as she spoke. There was something about how overeager and excited Ophelia was that was making her insides start to bunch up, and the last thing she wanted to do was to say anything of a romantic nature there while they watched. “But you know what, I just realized that if your grandma was in this, maybe the little version of my mom will be too, and that’ll be a surprise, if she’s anything like my actual mom.”

“She’s a princess, she’s got to be in this. That’s what people blessed with being actual royalty do, they appear in these kinds of things.” Her focus going back to the parade, Ophelia motioned for Soleil to do the same, and after waiting until the last round of cannon-fire was shot, part of the crowd freaking out again and steadily getting louder, she took her position there next to her dragon cousin, watching as the next group came through. At the head of the group was a lone horse, Ylissean soldiers walking alongside it with swords and lances held before them, while the older of the two princesses rode on its back, her sword drawn and held high above her head. The sight of her mother’s younger self made Soleil’s chest swell with pride, although she knew that her woman there in the parade must have been hating every moment of what she was doing. Ophelia pushed into her a time or two, making sure she was watching as the princess rode by, stern-faced and without acting happy about being there.

“Stop hitting me. I know, I see her,” Soleil finally said in a harsh whisper, getting Ophelia to apologize and stop. “I love that you’re excited, but I saw her at the same time you did, don’t worry.” Another apology was given and the two went back to their viewing, although Soleil did feel bad about telling Ophelia off like that. She was just trying to make sure her friend saw the one thing she wasn’t entirely sure she was going to get to, and that wasn’t a crime worth being told off for. But what had said was done, there was no taking it back.

At any rate, the parade was almost over and that meant that they’d be able to talk again and Soleil could apologize for what she had done. A few paces behind the soldiers and their princess came a row of horses, all ridden by soldiers once again armed with weapons of their choice, and in the middle of them, on a tall cart being pulled by a few of the horses, stood the Exalt and his wife, the appearance of both making everyone in the crowd cheer, including the two girls up above everyone else. Ophelia didn’t cheer as loudly for them as she had for her grandmother, but that was okay because Soleil was actually cheering for them both, knowing that they were used to these kinds of events given their royal position, and although her mother’s younger self didn’t enjoy the attention, her parents certainly did.

Directly following them was a carriage, carried by only the biggest and strongest horses owned by the royal family, and riding within the carriage, not giving a care in the world that the presence of _both_ of them was only going to lead to questions, was both the younger and the older version of Kjelle. The crowd, surprised at the turn of events, was cheering and hollering, losing their minds over the sight of two versions of the same princess, and it was that rowdy nature that took them through the last waves of soldiers and musicians that put an end to the parade.

“That was definitely one of the more interesting things I’ve seen in a while, and I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff,” Ophelia said once the roar of the crowd had dissipated a little bit. “Sorry once again for bothering you when your little mother came through, I just wanted to make sure you saw her, and…”

“No need to apologize for it any longer, it was a nice gesture to begin with.” Reaching out for Ophelia’s hand, Soleil took it into her own and pulled it closer to her when she got the chance. “Just like us watching the parade together was a nice gesture. It was good to get to spend time with someone as cute as you.”

“Someone as cute as me? You’re only saying that to make me feel better.” Ophelia tried to pull her hand away, but Soleil had too strong of a grip on it. “Please, let go of me and let’s go find our parents. Surely they can’t be far from here, we didn’t run off too far from the meeting spot when we found this place.”

Soleil moved Ophelia’s hand up closer to her face, leaning down to gently kiss it—before remembering that it was definitely not appropriate for her to have done that, especially not when the younger girl had already moved on from the thanks. Ophelia’s eyes went wide and she jerked her hand back, shaking it to try and remove the feeling of her cousin’s lips on it, while Soleil sputtered in apology, “Gods, I didn’t mean to make that weird! I was giving you the biggest thanks I could think of for what I’d done! Damn it, I didn’t mean to mess up what we had going on!”

“Next time, if you want to thank me for something, perhaps a new tome to replace the one you destroyed would be suitable?” Ophelia suggested, before heading away from their spot, clearly bothered by what had just happened. “I understand you get overcome when you’re around girls sometimes, but me? Why me? I’m not…you shouldn’t…”

Her last words were said at the same time when she disappeared into the dispersing crowd, leaving Soleil to panic and chase her down. But no sooner than when she was mere steps away from the viewing spot did a hand grab her wrist and pull her back from her chase, turning her around so that she could face whoever it was wanted to see her. “Er, h-hi there, Severa,” she stammered, eyes flickering in the direction she knew Ophelia had run off in. “Funny to see you again here, don’t you think?”

“Who were you up there with? Was it a date? Did you really go on a date without me being informed?” Sounding offended at her own suggestion, Severa tugged Soleil back when she tried running off. “Not so fast, we’ve got some talking to do. I know what you saw up there, and you’ve got to pay for making it happen.”

Eyes widening, Soleil swallowed down hard and cautiously asked, “How do you expect me to pay for true love happening? By finding you someone who’ll date you? That’s a hard deal and you know it, Severa. There’s a reason you don’t have a boyfriend or a girlfriend.”

“Pretty sure I do have a girlfriend now, and she’s standing right here with me.” The grip she had on Soleil’s wrist got tighter. “At least, until you come up with some other way to make what you did up to me.”

There was no hope on finding Ophelia and trying to apologize to her even further, not when this was the current situation that Soleil was in. She knew she wasn’t getting away from Severa without sacrifice, and that sacrifice that was required was going to take some time to get anywhere with. The one bright side, at least now she had something to focus her mind on that wasn’t a family crush?


	3. that's all she wrote

The return trip home was a lot less eventful than the one coming into town for the parade, mostly due to everyone staying in one solid group as they made their way to their original meeting spot. There were no stragglers or separations, although Ophelia would have loved to have known that Soleil wasn’t riding close behind her. Something about what had happened between them was still rubbing her the wrong way, even hours later, but rather than discuss it like she knew she should have, she was going to just ignore it and pretend it never happened. Which, as she’d hear whispers coming from behind her, wasn’t that hard to do after all, because it was clear that Soleil had already moved on from whatever it was that had gone on up there at their viewing spot.

By the time the group split into two, half heading back to the farm and the other half heading to their little corner of the land, she was ready to lose all sense of her calm demeanor and yell at the girls behind her to stop with the cute romantic talk, because it was getting on her nerves. Her agitation, even in the quickly-growing darkness, was noticed by her father as they started their ride separate from the offending parties. “I know I try to stay out of what’s bothering you most of the time, but it’s a rare day when my little girl is frustrated in front of others like you are now,” Owain said as he got his horse right up alongside Ophelia’s, her turning her head slightly so he couldn’t see her face as well. “Come on, share with your dad what’s going on. I’ll do my best to help.”

Like she had on the way into Ylisstol, she shook her head and gave her honest reason for why she wouldn’t talk: “I have to focus on riding right now, Father. Discussions will only distract me, and with it getting dark I cannot afford the distractions at all.”

“That’s why I’m riding alongside you, but if you insist on not talking, there’s no point in trying. Just…don’t let whatever it is eat at you too much, will you?” Getting no response from the girl, Owain sighed, giving a small and understanding nod at what was happening. “Right, focusing on riding. You’re not _going_ to answer me.”

“She’s a difficult one sometimes, it’s something you’d know about her a bit better if you spent more time at home and less time wandering around trying to find your purpose or whatever it is you do.” On her own horse, waiting patiently for her husband to come back to riding beside her rather than their daughter, Nah watched as he just shook his head again, not moving his position back to his original one. “Hey, seriously, don’t try and push her into talking, it won’t work.”

Even hearing her mother’s words didn’t make Ophelia want to say anything to her father, because she knew opening her mouth to tell him to leave her alone, even if her words were negative, would be taken as inviting him to conversation. The last thing she needed was to try and make any sense of what had happened at the parade while horseback, a close second thing being her father knowing even a tiny amount of what had happened. All she wanted was for him to stay completely in the dark about his cousin’s child kissing her on the hand, because even though it was probably a gesture of kindness and thanks, he would most likely take it the wrong way and go incredibly overboard on making sure it never happened again.

Or, at least, that was the worst possible outcome, but she didn’t know what her father’s course of action in this situation would be in any other outcomes. It was a problem with having only spent minimal time with him over the course of her life, something that they all knew very well—if she was going to go to any parent about this (which she was not planning on doing, not then or ever), it was going to be her mother. Nah might have been a no-nonsense mother, but she also knew how to listen to and handle her daughter’s problems better than almost anyone else in the world, and Ophelia knew that. The optimal person to go to for problems was no one, keeping them to herself and to her mountain of tomes in her bedroom, but when she absolutely had to turn to someone it was always her mother.

And when her mother, who knew so much about her, was saying to leave her alone, it was a warning that needed to be heeded. After a few minutes of riding beside her in silence, occasionally looking over to the girl and how she was so lost in thought and focusing so hard on riding in a straight line, Owain did give up on trying to get her to talk, slowly taking his horse back to where he should have been riding. “I don’t get it, Nah. Why is she so hard to get through to?” Casting a worry-filled glance over at his daughter once more, he sighed. “It’s not because I don’t spend time with her, is it?”

“It’s not, but that might help her trust you a little bit more than she already does.” Her voice low so that she wouldn’t be heard by Ophelia, Nah bit down on her lip, exposing one of her sharp, pointed teeth, before speaking again. “That being said, she loves and idolizes you, it honestly makes no sense as to why she’s refusing to speak to you. Maybe whatever it is that’s bothering her is no big deal, and we should respect that.”

“This parenting this is so hard, I just don’t know how someone could devote their life to it.” There was a moment, where Owain’s eyes flashed over towards Nah, as she raised her eyebrows at what he’d just said. “H-hey, I didn’t mean it like that!” he stammered, as he looked back over at Ophelia and how she remained completely focused on her riding. “I meant that it’s not something I could see myself being able to get good at.”

“If you didn’t leave all the time, you would be good at it, but I understand. You’ve got a hand to control, places to go, things to do, and raising your daughter never quite was a priority on the same level as any of that.” Biting her lip again, this time exposing the sharp tooth on the other side of her mouth, Nah didn’t go to speak again for the duration of the ride home, never quite sure what else there was she could say after what she already had. Not one to enjoy the silence, but also not one to pick fights with the people he loved, Owain reluctantly let the quiet nature of their trip exist as it wanted to, darkness overcoming them all and the sounds of the night meshing with the sound of their horses’ hooves hitting the path underneath them.

They arrived back at the farm at about the time everyone was starting to feel the exhaustion from their long day, and while the horses were led back to the stable where they belonged, Ophelia ducked inside the house and ran straight to her room, closing her door behind her without a single word to anyone else. Even though the polite thing to do would have been to at least say good night to the family, she got straight into bed and fell asleep without opening up to anyone; once everything regarding the horses was taken care of, and curious as to where her daughter had gone off to, Nah did open the bedroom door to see Ophelia already curled up in bed, fast asleep. She lingered in the doorway for a few moments before shutting the door and turning away, nearly running into Owain as she did. “Let me guess, she’s asleep in there, isn’t she?” he asked, a question that he got a nod in answer to. “So much for trying to talk things out with her.”

“She’ll come around eventually, if you give her the time and the space.” Nah shrugged, before wrapping her arms around Owain in an unusual show of affection towards him. “Which, uh, you can do while staying here, instead of doing your usual and heading off to who-knows-where for weeks. If you’re present, she might open up to you quicker.”

“You think so?” He got a murmured response, one given as his wife pressed her face into his chest, and he gave a shaky sigh to it, smiling as the breath passed through his lips. “Wow, I didn’t think that staying around would do anything aside from bother your parents with my theatrics. If you really think Ophelia would benefit from me staying…I’ll do it. For her.” Abruptly stopping her affectionate behavior, Nah pulled away from him, giving him a very offended look until he tacked “and for you, too” to his statement, after which she laughed and took his hand in her own, ready to lead him to bed for the night.

He hesitated on going with her, wanting to check in on Ophelia for himself, but the tugs at his hand overpowered his desire to make sure that his daughter was fine. He couldn’t better himself as a father if he woke her up and made her resent him more, could he? But as he found out in the following days, it wasn’t anything about her _resenting_ him that was the problem, it was simply that she had no desire to talk to him about anything that was on her mind. Every time he would see her, she would be idly scribbling things down in various notebooks, or studying tomes and practicing magic outside on her own, and when he’d approach her for conversation she would shy away, clearly not interested.

There was no way he was going to get anything from her, not unless he snooped through her belongings and read whatever it was she’d been writing, but that was a violation of privacy he would never impose on her. Sure, when he’d been growing up, he’d find his mother, curious as she was, digging through his books and commenting on some of the childish things he’d write, but he was a different kind of parent than his youthful mother had been. He was going to respect Ophelia’s decision to keep things secret from him, no matter how much the curiosity was burning at him—and that was fine, because as he’d soon find out, other people in the world were aware of exactly what she knew, and they had the mindset that Owain deserved to know them, even if his daughter didn’t think that way.

A few weeks after the parade, it was a lazy morning on the farm for Ophelia, one where she insisted on staying in bed for as long as she possibly could. Her window, open as always, was letting in a fresh breeze that smelled like dirt and stung with the cold of the coming winter, leaving her laying in bed under her blanket with her face buried in the pillow. Every so often, when the breeze would pick up a bit more, she would shiver and draw the blanket a bit closer to her, cursing at herself about having still left that window open. Rather than doing anything about it, though, she just stayed in bed and continued freezing, until a noise from outside caught her attention. She lifted her head and looked towards her window, where the dark head of a wyvern had poked its way inside, trying to get a good look around the bedroom.

“Gods, what _is_ that?” she shrieked, jumping out of bed in a frenzy that led to get dressed in the quickest time she’d ever managed before, re-wrapping herself in her blanket to try and control her shaking (and to pass it off entirely as being cold rather than being terrified at her unexpected visitor) before she opened her bedroom door to find the answer to what had attracted a wyvern to her room sitting out at the kitchen table with her parents.

“And you’ve come all this way out here to complain about this at me because…?” At his spot at the head of the table, Owain had one hand held to his forehead and the other drumming on the table’s edge, looking disgusted at the woman with the long greenish hair sitting across from him, her back to Ophelia so that she couldn’t see her expression. “Did Lucina and Inigo not want to hear your complaints or something? I can’t do anything about _their_ kid.”

“You can do something about _your_ kid, though, and that’s why I’m here.” The voice made Ophelia want to turn back and hide in her room, it sounding exactly like the one belonging to a particular someone who had done nothing but be nasty towards her. “From what I get of this, which is not a lot, I guess their kid got super close to your kid and, well, you know how I get when I want attention, I take something from someone else.”

“Close to…damn it Severa, you know that Soleil and Ophelia are going to be close, they’re related!” Now moving his other hand up to his head in frustration, Owain looked past where the older Severa was sitting and saw Ophelia standing by her bedroom door, anxiously looking around as if she was expecting someone to jump out of the shadows to make her life more miserable. “Speaking of my daughter, look who’s gotten out of bed! Ophelia, get over here, look we’ve got visitors!”

Letting go of the breath she’d been holding in fear, Ophelia nodded and approached the table, taking a seat next to her mother. “I know we have visitors, there’s a wyvern trying to get into my room.”  
“Pardon me, I have a wyvern to talk to,” the only stranger to Ophelia at the table said, standing up and heading outside without another word, as well as without any explanation as to who he was, with that noticeable yet unfamiliar head of orange hair.

In his absence, Severa rolled her eyes and dramatically sighed, setting her sights over on the young girl at the table, making her shrink back in her seat. “Don’t be scared, I’m not here to bully you like younger me would if she were here,” she explained, hoping to make the girl more comfortable. It worked, as Ophelia sat forward once more, waiting for someone to catch her up on what was happening, something that Severa noticed was happening. “Okay, I guess I can tell you why I’m here while he’s gone. Probably for the best, Gerome hates when we spend more time than needed doing something.”

“You know, telling her would go a lot better if you’d, well, actually tell her something,” Nah cut in, looking at Ophelia with a smile. “The short story is that Severa here is blaming you for her younger self’s behavior as of late, in what can only be described as the worst reasoning for anything I’ve ever heard. Ever.” The last word, spit out as Nah looked back to Severa, as she once again rolled her eyes at what was happening. “That’s right, I think you’re just making excuses for her being a bad person.”

“So me knowing that she’s only getting involved with someone because she’s jealous that same someone is fixated on your child is an ‘excuse’? Wow, okay.” Scoffing, Severa turned to face Owain, as he still rubbed at the sides of his head while he tried to make sense of things. “You believe me on this one, don’t you, Owain?”

The noise he gave could only be best described as completely unsure and a bit scared of what would come with her knowing he was so unsure. “It’s hard to believe you when you’re accusing Ophelia of causing something by being related to someone…”

“It’s not because they’re related, you dense idiot! My younger self is _dating_ that girl now because she got jealous that she _loves_ your kid!” Her fist hitting the table, Severa brought her arm back as if she was going to throw a punch at someone, but a hand grabbing her elbow stopped her before she got the chance to do anything more. As she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, Gerome taking his spot next to her once more while she did, she jerked her arm out of his grasp and slammed the fist down on the table again. “I won’t listen to you tell me this isn’t the case when it clearly is. After all, since when you do know anything about what happens where they live? Oh, that’s right, you don’t.”

“And since when you do know anything either? You two live in an isolated valley of wyverns, you don’t live near any of them!” Slamming a hand down of his own, Owain winced when he heard Nah snap his name at him for losing his temper for just a moment. “Sorry, didn’t mean to get loud there, it’s just that you’ve come into our home accusing Ophelia of something that makes no sense, and you’re doing it as if you actually know anything about what you’re saying!”

“I obviously know myself better than you can pretend to, and when she tells me this is the case, I’m going to believe her!” Non-apologetic for herself getting loud, Severa was very close to climbing onto the table to get into Owain’s face to continue making her point, but Gerome reached over and held her back, leaning close to her ear to whisper something short to her. Whatever that something was, it calmed her down in seconds. “Got a bit passionate there and I do apologize for it. Barely. But what can I say, knowing what I know, it makes me a bit disgusted to be sitting here in the same room as you right now, Owain.”

“If this is another dig at Ophelia for something she did not do, I swear…”

The devilish smirk that came across Severa’s face as she heard those words was one that had to be seen to be believed. “Ignoring your blind insistence of her innocence, it’s nothing to do with her this time. It’s all about you.”

“All about me? Now you’ve really got to elaborate, if you think you know even a fraction as much about me as my family does you’ll be quite mistaken.” He glanced over at Nah to see her reaction, and she was reaching to grip Ophelia’s arm, in case of trouble that could potentially flare up. “So what is your great knowledge here, huh?”

“Nothing, just that your younger self broke my younger self’s heart and proceeded to date another one of her long list of exes.” No sooner had she said the words that something clicked inside Severa’s mind, her eyes going wide and her smile vanishing. “Damn it, I should have thought that one through a bit better before I said it. Of _course_ she’d blame…ugh, how could I be so stupid?”

Noting that his wife was realizing she was in the wrong about something, Gerome once again stood up, dragging her up with him. “We apologize for this disruption of your day. On our return trip to the valley I’ll make sure to make her pay for this, if you wish.”

“There’s no need for it,” Owain said with a sigh, also taking to his feet. “I think what we need is to get to think about what’s happened here and to learn from this. Don’t let Severa start accusing everyone for everything when she’s always been a little troublemaker, old and young, and don’t waste your time coming all this way to bother us about it when—what was that?” The sound of a chair tipping over and hitting the floor caught him mid-sentence, distracting him from what he had been saying. He turned to the cause of the noise and saw Nah retracting her hand, looking confused as she stared in the direction of Ophelia’s bedroom, the girl having bolted from the table without warning.

On the other side of her door, breathing heavily with her heart pounding, Ophelia closed her eyes and wished that what she’d just been witness to hadn’t happened. Severa might have started to think that what she came to say was all a fabricated mess, but it made so much sense to her young mind. Of course Soleil, in an attempt to move past that misguided kiss, would move on to someone who hated everything about her! Of course that would happen, it was just how teenage girls worked! And once they got back to their home and got to talk to younger Severa about it, she’d probably send her older self back out to the farm for a second round of this confrontation.

Right now, as the dust settled from what happened, she was going to have to lie low and act innocent on the matter. The story was simple: she had no idea about any sort of feelings that Soleil would possibly have for her that weren’t familial ones, and therefore she was in no way to blame for what was happening. But when everything went back to normal and this became a footnote in everyone’s memories, she could casually bring up wanting to go visit everyone else to set things completely straight. It was a plan that had no choice but to work, and with any luck it would go perfectly.

It just required the luck, and the hope that everyone needed would go along with it.

* * *

The letter came to the little house about a month after the last time Soleil had thought about Ophelia in any way, and it came as such a surprise to her that when she saw her mother reading it, passing it off to her father, and then him handing it to her, she was excited for a split second before she read the entirety of its message. By the time the last looping word had been read, she was dreading the moment that the letter’s contents came true, and with its words fresh in her mind she knew there was one thing for her to do in that moment: some good old-fashioned sword practicing.

She found her favorite sword propped up against one of her bedroom walls, and after dressing like the warrior she was she took that blade outside, gripped it tightly, and took a swing at one of the trees behind the house. If there was one thing some swordplay was capable of, it was relieving frustration at how everything had fallen apart in the past month. She hadn’t meant to, nor had she wanted to, offend or hurt Ophelia in the way she had, but there was one destroyed tome, one awkward kiss, and one slightly-happening relationship involving Ophelia’s personal bully standing in between the two girls and anything remotely close to the friendship they once had. Even though them being anything more than friends was never going to happen—in the end, they were family, even if distantly related—there was still no need for her to have hurt the poor dragon girl like she knew she had.

And now that same dragon girl was coming to visit the little corner of Ylisse that Soleil and so many others called home, and that news was only fueling the frustration. She pulled the sword back and took another swing at the tree, hitting it with enough force to get the blade lodged in the bark. She groaned as she tried getting it out, finding it stuck a lot harder than she thought possible. “You out here trying to do some landscaping?” her father asked, coming out of the house to join her in the long grass in the yard. “Why, Soleil, if you want to cut things down, why take out the tree? Clearly the grass needs it more.”

“It wasn’t to be helpful, Dad,” Soleil grumbled, trying with all her might to get her sword unstuck, to no avail. “I’m just doing what you and Mom do when you get mad, trying to calm down through swordplay.”

“What’s got my child so angry? Surely it’s not the news that Owain and Ophelia are coming to stay with us for a few days.” At the mention of the girl, Soleil’s face scrunched up, something Inigo made sure to take note of. “Ah yes, it seems it would indeed be that. I thought you and her were friends, why the change?”

“We were friends, or are friends, or something, I don’t know.” Soleil, putting her foot up on the hilt of her sword to try and knock it from the tree with her leg strength, gave a sigh before continuing with her grumbling. “And now she’s going to be here and I don’t want to ruin things further than I already have with her.”

“Ruin things? I’m afraid I’m not following you here, Soleil. Aside from the incident with her tome, which will be fixed upon her arrival and not a second later, is there something else you’ve done to the girl? Based on her letter, she seems eager to make this trip.” Inigo waited for his answer, but Soleil had chosen to blow him off in order to try getting her sword unstuck; she stomped down on it and got nowhere in the process, her foot slipping off its spot which caused her to fall and narrowly miss smacking her face on the blade. As he watched, she picked herself up out of the grass and gave it as second attempt, her face contorted into a focused yet thoughtful expression as she did. “Very well, you can answer me any time before I get your mother involved.”

“Mom doesn’t need to get involved,” she said with a grunt, her foot once again on the sword. “She already knows about me ruining the tome, she doesn’t need to know everything else.” Her attempt at unsticking the blade was quickly proving futile, and so after nearly falling flat on her face a second time she jumped onto the ground with both feet and loudly sighed, motioning towards the sword with an aggressive gesture. “Can you maybe help me now, please Dad?”

Thinking for a moment, Inigo shook his head and turned away from her, heading back towards the house. “I think we’ll call it a compromise. You keep your blade in the tree and I remain in the dark regarding what you did to Ophelia. Have fun figuring this one out on your own, darling.”

Until he was out of her view, Soleil called for him to come back and to help her out, never stooping low enough to get him to change his mind. Once he was gone, she looked back to her sword and its precarious position, sighing again as she walked around the tree, trying to think of some new method to try and get it from where she’d put it. She never heard about them getting their blades stuck in trees when they did this, why did it have to happen to her? “So it seems that it’s Soleil who’s making all the noise out here,” someone speaking with a voice that definitely did not belong to either of her parents said, causing Soleil to stop her thoughts about her sword to look at the speaker in greeting. The newcomer, bowing their head with their giant-brimmed hat atop it, came closer to the tree and to the sword, inspecting it for themselves. “And for what an interesting reason. Her blade, permanently residing in the center of the tree. How unique.”

“Either help me out or get lost, Laurent. This isn’t any time for your nerd stuff.” Playfully punching her new companion in the shoulder, Soleil had hoped she would get a laugh and a plan out of him, but all she got was a glare over the rim of his glasses. “Jeez, I didn’t mean to offend you by that. Who do you think I am? Severa?”

“Judging by how often she has visited our village with the express reason of spending time with you, it would make sense for you to have acquired traits of hers.” Returning to looking through his glasses like a normal person would, Laurent crouched down to inspect the blade and how far it had gone into the tree, standing back up once he’d seen enough. “Now, if you would like some assistance with removing the blade from its current position, I would be more than willing to be of some help. However, I will ask that you allow my friends to join us for some…polite conversation.”

On one hand, the thought of having someone help with the sword problem that wasn’t going to ask a million questions regarding Ophelia was a pleasant one to have, but on the other hand, it was having Laurent and his friends helping, all of whom had some bad experience of one kind or another with Severa. And since Severa was kind of still currently her girlfriend, even if it never was a real relationship on one end, that would only spell trouble. If it were possible for Soleil to have a third hand to weigh an option on, it would probably be for holding the possibility of just solving her problem herself and getting on with her life without anyone else getting involved, but since she only had two hands, she wasn’t even going to consider that one. “You know what, I’ll take it,” she said, taking in a deep breath as she saw Laurent turn to wave someone over. “W-wait, were you all just waiting around out front or something?”

“Nonsense, why would we have been doing that?” Looking back to her with a smug smile, Laurent waited until his three friends were surrounding them to continue speaking, but the sight of one of them with some sort of treat in her hands caused him to forget what he was going to say regarding Soleil and her situation. “Er, Cynthia, where did you acquire that cookie? I was unaware that someone had brought any.”

“Soleil’s mom gave us them when she saw us show up. Said it was payback for the last time when my mom made older me bake pies for everyone.” Cynthia shrugged, her brown pigtails bobbing as she bit halfway into her cookie. Once she’d swallowed, she offered the remainder of the cookie to Laurent, but he pushed it away. “Your loss, I guess,” she told him, popping the rest of it in her mouth.

“Something tells me that your offer was only to be polite, and that you would have been crushed had I chosen to take the rest of the cookie.” Watching as Cynthia grinned after clearing her mouth of all remnants of the treat, Laurent shook his head before looking at the two guys towering over her, one on each side. “And would it be wrong for me to assume that the two of you also partook in the cookie eating?”

“After runnin’ some back to Yarne’s parents’ place? ‘Course we did!” Reaching around Cynthia to give a fist-bump to his long-eared friend, Brady laughed at the no-nonsense look Laurent was giving him for it. “What’s the look for? Was that wrong of us to do? You know his ma loves when people bring that kind of stuff to them.” Eagerly nodding to further the point, Yarne opened his mouth to break into an explanation as to why that was, but Laurent stopped it before it started with a single hand gesture.

“Yes, okay, I am well aware of why your mother would appreciate someone dropping by some treats, given the mass amount of siblings you have, so please do not waste the time or energy explaining to me. We have something much more important to be doing with our time right now.” Laurent watched as the rabbit’s shoulders slumped and he looked dejected at what he’d been told, but it did not deter him from continuing on. “Now that we have the entirety of the group, let me explain why we are gathered here today.”

Cynthia playfully rolled her eyes and laughed. “Uh, we’re here for the free cookies.”

“We are at the _house_ for the cookies, we are back _here_ to assist our old friend Soleil with an issue she’s developed.” That was when Laurent motioned towards the sword in the tree, the blue-haired girl’s hand resting on its hilt even though she knew tugging it was useless. “I have made the deal with her that we will help her on the condition of her explaining her involvement with one Severa, and as she has accepted the deal, we have no choice but to get her blade from its current place.”

“Gods, older you ain’t nearly this bossy, and he’s impossible to listen to when he gets started talkin’. You said sword out of the tree, yeah?” Brady waited until he’d gotten another confirmation on the task before he took a few steps over to the tree and, doing much like Laurent had before, crouched down to inspect the damage. “That’s definitely one sword stuck in there. If Ma found out I’ve been hangin’ around people who do this kind of thing, she’d…er, well, she already knows I do that. Can’t have been livin’ all this time without having done exactly that.” He put a finger to his mouth as he thought about what he’d just said, before standing back up and acting like he hadn’t said a thing. “Give me just a minute and I’ll get that sword outta there so you can get back to hittin’ it against trees all you want.”

“Is…that a euphemism for something, or are you really inviting her to continue damaging the nature here?” Laurent saw a wave of confusion take over Brady as he tried to make sense of what he’d just been told, a sight that made him shake his head and cover his face with a hand. “You know what, never mind. A minute and you’ll have the sword out, as you said, and then we will have our conversation with Soleil.”

Feeling a sense of dread building up inside her, Soleil was half-tempted to tell them that she did not, in fact, need their help after all, but as she opened her mouth to say it, the words caught in her throat. So what if this was part of Laurent’s plan to get ammunition for an argument the next time Severa came around, and so what if his friends (who all happened to be friends of hers, too) were in on the plan? They were helping her out of the mess she’d gotten into from previous frustrations, and that was what mattered. “I can hear your heart beating like crazy right now,” Yarne admitted, tilting his head so that both his ears flopped beside him on the same side, one brushing up his reddish patch of fur to make it stand on end. “Either you’re scared or you’re in love with one of us, and since you’ve got a girlfriend, I think it’s the first one.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Yarne. I’m not scared _or_ in love, I’m just living my life like I always do.” Forcing a smile, Soleil hoped her confidence would be enough to deter his rabbit ears, but there was no such luck. He repeated his two options and she sighed, knowing there was no way to get out of having to talk about it. “You got me, I’m scared about something. Not the rousing conversation we’re about to have about my totally-not-girlfriend, but something.”

“Did you say ‘not-girlfriend’? Because that’s _not_ what she told all of us last time she was here.” Stepping forward and putting her hands to her hips to give Soleil a sassy look, Cynthia paused for a second to see if any of her companions would speak before she continued on. “I remember it clearly, she said she’d moved on from each and every one of us by dating you, because you were so much better than we ever could be, and you were so much prettier than me and stronger than Brady and smarter than Laurent and less of a scaredy-bun than Yarne and…okay wait that last one is true of literally everyone, but still.”

“Did you have to go and list the complaints out? I’ve been trying to work on my being scared thing, it doesn’t help when everyone likes jumping out from behind bushes and startling me!” Completely disregarding what Cynthia had been doing by explaining what Severa had said about all of them, Yarne began wrapping one of his ears around his hand, tugging at it on occasion. “I don’t even know why me being like that is a problem, it’s not like—“ He interrupted his own thought with the single loudest scream that Soleil had ever heard in her life, although everyone else present seemed completely used to the behavior. His entire body shaking, he pointed towards the tree that had the sword in it, finger trembling like a leaf in the wind as he did.

“I said give me a minute and I’d have the sword out, and I got the damn sword out. Just, uh, might’ve broken it while doin’ it.” Holding half the blade in one hand, and the other half, the hilt, and part of the tree in the other, Brady looked at all the faces of the people gathered around and dropped everything, looking exasperated as he did. As he wiped his hands on the end of his top, blood smearing on the fabric, he said, “Come on, ya can’t act like this wasn’t going to happen. Have you seen how my dad gets things unstuck? Should be proud the whole tree didn’t come down!”

“And proud we are, although it might have been for the best if you hadn’t broken Soleil’s sword in the process. Why, what if she chooses to not speak to us now that there is no incentive?” Laurent bent down to pick up the end of the blade, handing it over to Soleil once he was back standing straight. “You will still speak though, correct?”

She took the blade from him and slowly nodded, looking at her reflection in the worn metal as she did. “I mean, Brady did get the sword out of the tree, even if now I need to get a new sword next time I want to fight anything, so I don’t see why I wouldn’t speak.”

“Then it’s settled. Come on, let us find somewhere more befitting of the conversation we’re to be having.” As the group started to walk away, Soleil froze, unsure if she really wanted to follow them or if she wanted to just stay where she was. But as they trudged through the long grass, she shrugged at her thoughts and cast the sword piece aside, lodging it in the tree by its tip, before running to keep up with them. As he usually did, Laurent led the group, although Cynthia was right at his side, jabbering about something or other that he was clearly uninterested in. Behind them, walking alongside each other, Brady and Yarne were also in conversation, even though theirs was much more animated and included some demonstrations of how, exactly, the sword had been removed and broken simultaneously, resulting in the bleeding cuts on Brady’s hands.

And behind them was Soleil, being mindful of every step as they walked through the grass, not wanting her fear and wariness of what was coming in the future to cause her to trip and make a fool of herself in front of these people. They, much like Ophelia, had been her friends at one point or another, or were possibly still her friends, but due to her choices and behavior she had driven them away. The difference in the situations, she knew, was that these guys would accept her back once they knew she wasn’t really dating the one common romantic thread tying them (and so many others) together, while she wasn’t even sure she could ever get Ophelia to forgive her for what she’d done.

The designated conversation place ended up being Cynthia’s bedroom, most likely a decision made while they’d been walking. When they came to the little house she lived in, she darted inside to make sure no one was home, then came back out to let everyone else in. “I had to make sure Noire wasn’t here, didn’t need either version of her coming in and unleashing fury on us for being loud or something,” she explained with a smile, as she led everyone to her bare-bones room. “This is what I get for being a temporary houseguest, but what can I say? Better me than that bully, right?”

“Anyone is better than her, which is saying something because there are some horrendous people in existence.” Taking a seat on the bed, Laurent offered the spot next to him to Soleil, but she shook her head to refuse it, which gave Cynthia the opening to jump into the spot, nearly knocking him over in the process. While the other guys took the floor, and Soleil remained standing in the doorway, he waited for everyone to get situated and not be rustling around before he said anything more. When he spoke, he was looking to Soleil over his glasses, unable to actually see anything but looking commanding as he talked. “Now that we are here, we simply must get to the topic of why you’re supposedly dating someone you know has dated all of us in the past.”

“Funny you ask that, because it’s not even my fault!” Waving her arms out as she leaned forward a bit, Soleil motioned down towards Brady as he picked at his hands and the blood drying on them. “If Severa hadn’t spent time at the parade watching big guy here kissing someone, she wouldn’t have made moves on me!”

“You were kissing someone?” Yarne asked, hitting Brady in the shoulder. “Wow, you live right next door to me and I didn’t even know you had someone new! Are they a good person? Do I know them? Do any of us know them?”

“It was just for some flirtin’, mostly to get her to leave us alone, no big deal.” Completely unattached to what he was saying, Brady’s focus was still on his hands and how he’d torn them up with that sword. “Can’t say I’d do it again, mostly because he doesn’t live around here and I’m not movin’ in with Ma to get to see him more, but it was just some flirtin’, I swear, guys.”

“Okay, but…” Blinking a few times as she thought about what she had seen there at the parade, about how she’d watched more than just some flirty kisses happening, Soleil shook her thoughts away to get back to explaining herself. “Whatever, it’s all good! Severa got super jealous that two of her boyfriends got together, especially after I’d told one of them,” she once again motioned to Brady and his absent-minded hand-picking, “to start flirting with the other, and she took it out on me by making me date her. But joke’s on her because I am not interested in her. At all.”

Cynthia tilted her head back and laughed to herself, ultimately falling backwards onto the bed. “How’s she not realized that yet? You get really awkward when you’re talking to someone cute that you like. Like, stammering and blushing and messy awkward.”

“Which is how you know that I don’t like her, because the only time I’ve gotten like that around her, someone else who is cute was present.” Just like that, color was beginning to fill Soleil’s cheeks, a pleasant thought of Ophelia coming to her mind, but she had to purge her thoughts of that instantly to not raise suspicion. “Er, let’s just say that when Severa realizes I’m not in love with her and I’m not even technically going to be on her list of exes, she’s going to want to kill me.”

“You’re playing a dirty game with a wretched woman, and I must say, I am impressed.” Clasping his hands together, Laurent gave a faint smile at Soleil, and she beamed in response to it. “I never would have pegged you as being someone capable of such depraved actions but, given who you’re doing them to, I am quite pleased.” As he finished speaking, he adjusted his hat and stood up, nearly trampling one of Yarne’s ears in the process. “Why, this talk was a lot shorter than I had anticipated it being. By chance, do you all think we could take this meeting to another, less-crowded place to continue discussing related things?”

“First the guy tries stepping on my ear, then he asks for more talking! It’s almost like Laurent only thinks about what he wants, not the wants of others!” Yarne had certainly intended for his comment to be only heard by the person sitting beside him, but when a soft smack hit the back of his head, he realized that everyone in the room had heard him. “I-I didn’t mean to offend you or anything, I promise!” he apologized, getting to his feet and attempting to hug Laurent as a way to say sorry, but he was brushed away before he got a chance. “Please, forgive me! We can go talk somewhere else, sure! I mean, we don’t have a lot of good, comfy places to hang out around here, but maybe we can find one!”

“Or maybe we can find a healer who can fix Brady’s hands up before we do anything else,” Cynthia suggested, sitting back up and looking down at how he was still picking at his cuts, but the stupidity of what she’d just said hit her fast. “Wait, he’s a healer! He can heal himself! And, and, ooh! Maybe his dad’ll be around and we can get shown how to do something really cool, like, I don’t know, taking a blade out of a tree without cutting yourself?”

“I’ll pass on the continuation of this hangout, I’ve got some things I should be doing at home.” Soleil wasn’t sure if she really did have anything to do or not, but chances were that her parents had seen what had happened to the tree by then and they would most likely want answers. “Thanks for helping me with my problem, and for getting why I’m playing Severa like I am, and all that. You’re a real cool group.” She gave them a couple of finger guns before walking out, while the four discussed what they were going to do next.

As she walked home, the quiet nature of the village they lived in made for a perfect backdrop for getting lost in her thoughts. There were no other people out walking at the same time she was, the footpath completely empty, and so when she stopped in the middle of the path to look up at the mostly-clear sky, a few stray clouds in her line of sight but nothing more than that, she didn’t need to worry about an ambush or being in someone’s way. It was just Soleil and her thoughts, and at that moment, that’s all she could ask for.

She still had no idea how she was going to get over Ophelia, or at least how she was going to fix things with her, but knowing that she had friends who had her back when things unraveled with Severa was pretty great.

* * *

Ophelia had been across Ylisse just a handful of times that she could remember, and most of those times had been whole-family affairs that met their ending in the same place every time. So to make the trip from the farm to Ylisstol, and then from the capitol to the village where many of the Shepherds and their children had grouped up to live, with only her father and grandfather, it was a life-changing experience. One that she had packed for in the simplest of ways: a couple of tomes, a few changes of clothing, and her costume that she’d been given for her birthday. If her mother wasn’t going to be there, was there any reason for her to not bring it?

In her mind, there wasn’t, and when her father found out she had it with her, he didn’t bat an eyelash at it. “All good performers need their costumes with them, in case the chance to get into character arises,” Owain said, making his daughter grin at his acceptance of how she presented herself. “But try to keep getting into costume to a minimum when we’re in the village, there’s a lot more people around there than you’re used to.”

“If I wouldn’t wear it in Ylisstol, I wouldn’t wear it there either, Father,” she replied, still grinning. “And I promise to keep it put away unless we’re practicing with our weapons. I’m sure that Papa Gregor wouldn’t want to see his granddaughter dressed like that on normal occasions.” Internally, she was cheering about how she was going to get to spend this trip not just with her normally-absent father but her grandfather as well, but she kept her excitement on the outside down to that sharp-toothed grin she was so fond of. “I’m never going to want this trip to end, I don’t think.”

“You’ll want to go home to see your mother again sometime, that’s how I always get when I’m gone for a while.” Stretching, he ended up placing a hand on top of Ophelia’s head and ruffling her hair, causing her to giggle. “And, who knows, maybe you’ll find that all this time with me and one grandfather will make you miss her and your other grandfather. All I’m saying is that this trip can’t last forever.”

“I know it can’t actually, I’m not a little kid anymore and I understand that things do have to end.” Feeling instant regret for saying something like that to her father, she shuffled closer to him over the course of her next few steps and wrapped an arm around him. “I just won’t want it to when it’s time.” She was still holding on to that mindset after their overnight stay in Ylisstol, where they spent time with her father’s parents that she enjoyed more than she was sure he thought she would. The following morning, with one newcomer to their group, they set out for their final stop, the entire day’s trip spent on the back of a royal-owned carriage exactly like the ones that had been in that parade.

It really made the mark on Ophelia’s arm burn with family pride to be traveling through Ylisse like actual royalty, something she wouldn’t dare bring up to her father in case he took offense to her words. But even though she didn’t mention it, her grandfather was quick to pick up on how she was feeling. “Little Ophelia, you burst with happiness just like my Lissa darling does when she feels great excitement. Do you want to share?” His voice booming and friendly, all Ophelia could do was giggle just like a child when Gregor talked to her, nuzzling into his side and making him laugh. “No, but you will share love, which is good too! Come, Owain, join in with the loving!”

“I’ll pass, thank you though. It’s good to see you two having a moment, no need for me to interrupt it.” But after being asked to join a second time, a request made with Ophelia asking at the same time, he couldn’t refuse it, and so, even though Gregor was the one commanding their carriage, he was hugged by his son on one side and his granddaughter on the other, making him laugh and find enjoyment in the boring role of driver for the entire time they were on their trek.

They arrived in the village in the late afternoon, stopping first outside the house Owain knew belonged to Lucina and Inigo so that they could go in to say hello. “You’re going to spend time with one of your pals today, right?” he asked his father as he and Ophelia both got out of the carriage with their things. When Gregor gave a loud yes as his answer, he smiled and waved in the direction the older man would need to go. “Pretty sure if you head closer to where everyone else lives, someone’ll be able to direct you better. Have fun and meet us back here tonight so we know you didn’t drink yourself to death or something.”

“Such a funny son, thinking old man Gregor could die from drinking! Would never happen, don’t worry!” After making sure that the two were safely away from the carriage, he headed off in the direction Owain had pointed him, hopefully to find whoever it was he was planning on spending the rest of the day with.

That left father and daughter standing in front of a house unfamiliar to one of them, while the other started on his way to make himself feel right at home. “Come on, we’re going to waste time if we just stand here. I’ve got to show you where it is I spend a lot of time right before and right after I leave home. My cousins have a nice place here, let me tell you.” He pushed the door open without so much as a knock, and because of that he was instantly greeted with the sound of popping knuckles, Kjelle standing right on the other side of the doorway. “Er, hello Kjelle, were you informed of us coming to visit?”

“I was,” she curtly said, going to pop her other hand’s knuckles, “and I figured I should be the one saying hello to you, seeing as you’ll once again be displacing me from my bedroom while you’re here.”

“I’ve said a million times, I’m fine with sleeping on the floor if it means you don’t want to beat up on me.” Looking at his daughter and how she was staring at Kjelle with fear in her eyes, he nudged her forward a bit to start a distraction. “Here, you wouldn’t dare attack me if Ophelia’s in the way, would you?”

At the very moment that Kjelle lunged forward to prove that yes, she would indeed do that, three heads poked out from the other main room of the house, one of them instantly retracting when Ophelia was seen. “Why, if you’d look at that, the young dragon finally makes her way into our home!” Inigo proudly announced, while Lucina, noticing that Soleil had disappeared from where she’d been waiting, went to go find her. “It’ll be a great time with you here, I guarantee it. My Soleil has been waiting for you to arrive for days now, you should get right on spending time with her!”

“Oh gods, why is he saying that?” Soleil mumbled to herself as she continued backing away, her mother approaching her step-for-step. “Mom, please, make him stop! I haven’t been waiting for her, I just want to finally apologize right and fix everything and be done with all this guilt I feel!”’

“The only way you’re getting over it is if you actually talk to her about it, which you can’t do if you’re trying to hide.” Lucina shook her head as she saw Soleil begin to tremble before her. “It won’t be a bad experience if you fix things now. If you don’t, well, you’re sleeping in the same room as her for as long as she’s here, so there’s your choices.”

“I hate that you always know what’s best to say,” she said, casting her eyes downward but immediately pretending to perk up when she heard her father talk about getting a greeting hug from Ophelia; when the dragon girl saw her up against the back wall of the house, she immediately skipped over to her side, her bag still on her back. “Hey there, Ophelia, it’s been a while since we last talked, huh?” she awkwardly said, feeling like she stumbled over every word that came from her mouth. “We should fix that.”

“You know how last time ended, so I agree! How do you propose we fix it?” Swaying and turning side to side, Ophelia waited for Soleil to do something, and she was not expecting it to be escort her out into the back area behind the house, the grass freshly cut and smelling a lot like the farm did. “Is your idea to make me feel like I’m back home? Because while that’s a nice idea, I don’t think it’s going to work.”

Soleil shook her head, raising a finger to tell Ophelia to stay still while she ran back into the house, grabbing a purple-covered tome out of her bedroom before coming back outside, the book being held behind her back. “So you remember how when I went to your house, I totally ruined your birthday present like an idiot? Well, I want to fix things by replacing what I ruined.”

“There’s no need for—oh gods, it’s a new dark magic tome! Soleil, I didn’t think you really would get me a new one!” At the sight of the book’s cover, clean and brand new, Ophelia felt nothing but happiness, but the feeling was immediately replaced by the ever-nagging need to name what she was just given. “Now if only I had known this was coming, I would have prepared a name for it…”

“Take your time, it’s meant to be a surprise gift so I didn’t expect you to have a name for it already,” Soleil said, passing the book into Ophelia’s eager arms. “But whatever name you pick, no matter how lame it is, I’ll second it.”

Ophelia’s eyes lit up at Soleil’s words, her clutching the tome closer to her chest. “Soleil, that’s a perfect name for it! From here on out, my newest and most precious dark magic tome, with which I will become the spectacularly dazzling magic maiden Ophelia Dusk, shall be known as _Seconded by Soleil_ , to remind me even in my most character-intensive moments that my cousin is by my side!”

“You didn’t really need to name it after me, but thanks, Ophelia!” Feeling instantly better that not only had she been forgiven for destroying the original tome, but that her replacement had been accepted with such eagerness, Soleil cracked a smile. “Maybe once you’ve put its name on it, we can go try it out on someone. I’ve got this friend, his name’s Laurent, he uses magic as well so he could be a good opponent!”

“It sounds like a lovely time! Oh I’m so happy I decided to bring my costume, this’ll make my performances all the more exciting!” Jumping a small bit, Ophelia turned to run back into the house to show her father her new gift, but before she did, she had one thing to say to Soleil: “Thanks for making everything right again. With this tome in my possession, it’s almost as if nothing went wrong to begin with!”

Watching as she went inside and listening to her childish squeals of excitement, Soleil felt content with what she’d accomplished. So maybe she still felt a little weird towards Ophelia, but those feelings would go away with time, she was sure. For now, though, she was going to make the best of the family time that she had, because it wasn’t like there was anything else that she needed to take care of—or so she would have liked to think. “Excuse me, are you going to ever acknowledge that I’ve been here for hours to talk to you? First you blow me off to go talk to your parents, then you do that sickeningly stupid thing with that nerd, and you’re still ignoring me?” Severa’s voice snapped, the girl standing up against the house under the cover of some bushes. “I thought you loved me, Soleil. What’s up with that?”

“I’m still not answering you,” she replied, not turning her head to even look in the direction of the talking foliage. “I told you not to come all this way, I told you to just stay home with your older self and her husband, but nope you obviously know what’s best and so I’m not going to give you what you want.”

“I just want my girlfriend to talk to me!”

“Then go find yourself a girlfriend,” Soleil said with a smirk, “because I don’t have one, nor do I need one right now. Goodbye, Severa, and good luck.” To the sound of sputters and failed rebuttals, she went inside and closed the door tightly, ready to spend the night talking to her dear cousin Ophelia, just like family should.


End file.
